Digimon Adventure G3
by Mr.Oakzzz
Summary: Four years have passed since the defeat of MaloMyotismon and the Digidestined have entered high school. As summer vacation finally approaches, mysterious portals have began to open all over the digiworld and spread a darkness through the lands. Will the Digidestined be able to save the world once again, even with their new additions? Read to find out!
1. Dreams of darkness

**AAlllright! When i first joined this site, I made a promise to the guy that inspired me. To make a Digimon fanfiction! And a man that doesn't keep a promise isn't a real man! Now, this is only my second fanfic so far so plz don't be too harsh when your making a judgement, but you are more than welcome to give a review for this! I'm going on to kickstart this fanfic and release three chapters in once, so just sit back and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Digimon stuff. If I had, We would know what happened with Daemon. But if you read this, you will know how things would've turned out if I actually owned this stuff!**

**Digimon Adventure G3**

_Chapter one:_

T.K felt sleepy. It was the last day on the school year. Only five minutes remained, yet the teacher kept on blabbering about some stupid old emperor from the ancient Rome. T.K turned towards the window and sighed. History must be the most boring subject to ever exist. To him, and many others he knew, what happened thousands of years ago was completely unimportant. He turned his attention to the clock on the wall that had moved one step closer to four o'clock. Lowering his gaze, he saw how Kari turned towards Davis who sat beside her and whispered something in his ear. Davis nodded and smiled at her. T.K turned to look at his own bench comrade. Daniel slept with his head on the bench, snoring silently. T.K shook his head. He didn't get this guy. He never seemed to pay attention to anything, yet he had scored highest grade in all classes he shared with T.K. not that he had showed his grades to anyone, he never cared for anyone else, but T.K had glanced on his tests over his shoulders. As he turned away from the sleeping student, he saw the clock turning again, just one minute left!  
The class had begun to gather up their belongings by now. The teacher seemed uninterested by this event and kept up his meaningless blabbering. As the clock showed 30 seconds left, everyone except Daniel seemed ready to explode. Kari turned her face backwards and smiled at T.K, who smiled back at her. Then finally… RRrrrrriiiiingg!  
In a matter of seconds, every single student was out of the classroom. T.K caught up with Davis and Kari when they reached Kari's locker.

"Hey guys! What's up?"

"C'mon, did you really had to ask? It's finally summer! We're free!" Davis's answer made Kari giggle from behind her open locker.

"Davis, I think he was wondering what you were going to do in the afternoon." Kari told the googleboy. "I was actually wondering myself. If you don't have anything planned, you can hook up with us."

"Well, I was going to meet Ken on the airport, but his plane won't arrive before ten o'clock this evening. I'm on, by the way, where are we going?"

T.K could hear a book fall within the locker, followed by an irritated "ouch".

"What was that for?" Gatomons voice could be heard from within the locker.

Ignoring the cat digimon ("Hey! I'm talking to you!"), Kari put the last of her books in her bag and turned to Davis.

"We're going to my place, my mom's gone all nuts and began baking all kinds of stuff so we need someone to help us save the fridge from exploding."

"Your mother bakes? And then freezes it?" Davis shook his head. Why bake something if you're going to freeze it down afterwards anyway?

"It's just something she's gotten into. It's like her new hobby or something." Kari said while Gatomon took a jump and landed on the floor. They began walk straight down the corridor. Since everyone knew about digimon by now, there was no need to hide Gatomon from their fellow students. However, they did get the evil eye from some of them, but didn't bother. As they reached Davis's and lockers, voices could be heard from within them.

"…So what if I can't fly now? I just need to digivolve to champion level!"

"Well I on the other hand don't need to digivolve in order to fly, I just need to spread my wings and flap with them."

"And what's so special about that?"

Sighing in chorus, Davis and T.K took a step forward opened their lockers. From Davis's locker, a small blue creature with a big head jumped out and reached for locker, from which an orange thing with big bat-like ears flew out.

"See? You can't get me, because you can't fly." Patamon said while sticking his tongue out to the blue fur ball that did all it could to grab his feet, but failed.

"Daavvviiiiis! Patamon is picking on me because I can't fly!"

"Now that's not very nice Patamon. Why are you doing that anyway?" T.K asked his partner.

Patamons smile turned into a sad expression.

"I was getting bored out of my pants and I couldn't do anything from my place. Why do you have to keep me in the locker?"

"Let's not change subject. That's still not a good reason to pick on DemiVeemon. You should apologize to him."

DemiVeemon climbed up Davis's back and sat down on his head.

"There's no need for that. I was getting kinda bored myself. Though I wish next time, you can pick another subject. Seriously, why do you need to keep us in the lockers?"

"Well, I don't really know either." Davis said. "T.K, why do we need to keep them in the lockers?"

T.K sighed. He never changed.

"Even though most people know of Digimon now, most people also hates them for the chaos the evil digimon caused in the past. If our digimon were to run into someone with that mindset when we're not around, it could turn out really bad."

"Yeah, what he said." Davis said turned to DemiVeemon, who nodded.

Davis reached for his bag in the locker. It had been packed for holiday for almost a week. T.K on the other hand had began reaching for books and pick out some stuff from his bag.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day when Davis was better organized than you T.K." Kari said with a smile.

Davis felt proud for the comment and pushed his chest forward.

"Hear that T.K? I'm better organized than you.!"

T.K laughed from behind his open locker.

"It also means that your usual sense for organization really sucks."

Davis felt like someone had smashed him in the face and turned around. Kari giggled.

"So how did your grades end up guys?" Kari wanted to know, picking up her own grades from her bag. As Davis reached for his own grades, T.K was faster to switch with Kari.

"Oh man, you've beaten me in almost every class!" T.K exclaimed.

Davis's mood rose a bit. But then he came to think of something.

"I thought you said that you were terrible at science?"

"Not according to these grades." T.K filled in. "She's got highest possible grade in science. How did you manage that? That old geezer of a teacher refused to even acknowledge my study of healing herbs as anything more than average."

For some reason, Kari blushed at this statement.

"Well to be honest, it's thanks to my partner." Kari said.

"What? Gatomon helped you with your homework?" Davis sounded confused.

"I think she meant her lab-partner, Davis." T.K said.

"Yeah, Daniel was of big help to me."

T.K froze while picking up a sweater from the bottom of his locker. He turned to face Kari before he spoke up.

"Daniel? You don't mean that guy Isashi, do you?"

Davis flickered from T.K to Kari and back again. He had heard rumors that Daniel Isashi was a genius behind his cold expression, but had never had a chance to confirm it.

"You know him? He's great, he helped me out so much in science and he even helped me with some other stuff while he was at it." Kari seemed to be happy talking about her new friend. It was something about her way to do it that irritated Davis, but he couldn't really figure out what it was. He decided that it was nothing important and instead went back to rush T.K.

"So, are you coming or what?"

Ken woke up from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes and yawned goofily. As he opened his eyes again, he felt his heart freeze. He was no longer in the air plane. He was sitting at a beach. Everything was gloomy and everything around him looked like a movie from before the Second World War. He could hear his breath getting heavier as he looked around. The more of this place he saw, the harder he felt his heart beat in his chest. He could hear the waves. The waves of black water splashing onto a lighthouse that shined dark light. The sweat began to pour down his face. He felt cold.

"_Ken Ichijouji…"_

A cold voice could be heard from somewhere out in the water. Ken felt how he trembled inside at hearing this voice. It sounded familiar, somehow.

"What do you want from me?!" he shouted, but his voice was strained and broke half way through the sentence.

"_Ken Ichijouji, you must come with me!"_

The sentence made a distant memory float up to the surface. He remembered the hooded creature that had tried to convince him to go with him shortly before their battle with MaloMyotismon four years ago. As he remembered those cold eyes, his heart trembled with fear.

"Leave me alone!"

He tried to sound as courageous as he could, but he heard his own voice as if it belonged to someone who had seen a ghost. As he tried to stand up and run away, he felt a burning pain in the neck.

"Gaaawgh!" His hand flew up over his head and covered the spot that had burnt. He fell to the ground and began shaking in his entire body.

"_I need it Ken. Give it to me or I will have to take it by force_!"

The voice echoed over the gloomy beach and made it sound like it came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"No! Just butt of and leave me alone!" Ken screamed. But as he opened his eyes, he was no longer on the beach of the dark ocean. He was back in the aero plane. He had seemingly screamed the last sentence for real, as the people around him looked suspiciously at him.

"Oh, must… eeh, been a nightmare." He said and tried to give them a reassuring smile. They just shrugged and turned away again. Ken took a deep breath and tried to think this through.  
_It was only a dream_, he tried to reassure himself. _You've been overworking yourself and now you pay the price for it._  
But the longer he thought about it, it became more and more obvious that this couldn't be a coincidence. This sick feeling he had been having lately, the blackouts and now this. There got to be something going on.

_He said that he needed something from me. What does he mean?_ Ken thought and pulled his hand over the spot in his neck where he had felt the burning pain. Thinking of the feeling, he slowly began to remember another pain he had once felt at the same spot.

/Flashback/

"_We did it Ken!" Wommon exclaimed. Ken was panting like crazy. He was exhausted. The brown-haired boy by his side did the same. In front of them crawled a giant, monstrous being in the sand. He didn't know how, but they had somehow managed to defeat Millenniemon. He was down for the count.  
"Now, let's dispose of that thing!" Ryo roared and began to move towards the cyborg/dragon like digimon. But then without a warning, their enemy vanished in a poof of smoke. At first, Ken relaxed for the first time in weeks. 'Now it's finally over' he thought to himself. But as he looked over to Ryo, who had turned around, he noticed something. Small, spiked balls hanging in the air, barely visible to the eye.  
"Watch out!" he shouted to his friend as the dark spores began to move towards them. He made it to Ryo's side a split second before they reached them and managed to push the older boy down on the ground and tried to shield him. But suddenly, he felt a burning pain spread through his neck. He reached for the burning spot with his hand in a weak try to make it go away.  
"Gaaah!" he screamed out.  
"Ken, are you ok?" The last thing he saw before he passed out was Ryo's concerned face._

/ End of Flahsback/

Ken remembered the pain he had felt that day. That was the day when it all started. The moment that dark spore hit him, he had been doomed to a miserable life. He had been taken care of for two weeks while he was unconscious. Ryo had watched over him along with Wormmon and several other digimon that he had later thanked by enslaving as the Digimon Emperor. He closed his fist in frustration. He would have given up everything he had to go back and undo everything he had done. And to think that all of that could have been prevented if he hadn't been hit by the dark spore that day. But as he thought of the dark spore, he suddenly knew exactly who was behind this. He knew exactly who was responsible for the spore growing in strength. Daemon was on the move!

**So, that's it for the first chapter! If you have something to say about it, maybe you think it's a bit short or think I should change something, leave a review! And even if you don't think anything should change, you're welcome to Review anyway!**


	2. The tragedy from the past

**well, I said that i would kickstart this fanfic so here I go! Chapter two for all of you! Plz R&R!**

_Chapter two_

"What do you mean I can't come home?"

Daniel felt the rage build up in his belly. Why did he have to stay in Odaiba over the summer vacation?

"I already told you, your mother is getting worse and we don't know when she will get better or even if she will get better. You might as well stay where you are to keep out of it." The doctor said through the telephone.

Dan bit his lip. He didn't like being back in Odaiba and to be honest, he didn't understand why he had decided to return here in order to study. This place packed just as many bad memories as Tokyo did, yet he had chosen himself to go back here when the opportunity was given.

"I just want to get out of here." He told the doctor.

"Then get out of there. Just don't come back here. If you come here you will come running to the hospital first thing you do-"

"WELL CAN YOU BLAME ME? IT'S MY MOTHER WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!" he roared into the phone. His mother was the only one he had left. Well, besides his sister. Their dad was long gone. As he thought of his dad, he began drifting away to that horrible day, but the doctor's voice recalled him to reality.

"I know she's your mother. But right now she's not capable to care for neither you, nor your sister. And if you come running here and begin to make a scene, she might get even worse. We need to concentrate on nursing her back to health. If she get any better, you are more than welcome to come visit her, but until then stay where you are."

Dan kicked the wall in front of him. To not be able to do something when it was needed the most felt frustrating. He had scored highest possible grade in almost every class he had taken since he was 6 years old, yet when it came down to something important, he couldn't lift a finger to help.

"You're forgetting something now, aren't you?" Dan said in a cold whisper.

"I am? What?"

"My sister. She's still in Tokyo. What's going to happen to her?"

"Well, as she's so young and have yet to understand the importance of the situation, we were hoping you could care for her while your mother's in the hospital?"

Miyuki doesn't understand? My ass! If someone her age could understand when a situation was strained, it would be her. She could snap up anything from mathematic to science in the blink of an eye. Not to mention she was really good at reading other people, it was almost scary. Last but not least, she acted as if she were five years older than she actually were.

"So you are going to send Miyuki over here?" Dan asked with bitterness in his voice. It wasn't that he didn't like his sister, but if she came here, it meant he had to care for her and his apartment was already too small he thought.

"We've already booked the ticket for her. She would arrive in Odaiba around 22.30."

Daniel sighed.

"Ok. I'll look after her. If that was all, I will drop the phone now doctor Kido."

"Actually, I'm not a doctor, I'm a nurse in training. But anyway, bye."

As Dan let the cellphone fall onto his bed, he closed his eyes and sighed again. It felt like ever since they lost their father, his family had been falling apart, not to mention his life had been doing the same thing. He laid down on the bed and closed his eyes, thinking back to that fateful day.

/Flashback/

_Daniel felt his heart tremble as he looked up at the hooded creature in front of him. It carried a scythe that appeared to be very sharp. He didn't like sharp things, they were scary._

"_Oh, don't worry. As long as you're not the eight digidestined, this scythe won't cut you. At least not too badly."_

_As Phantommon laughed at his own, sadistic joke. he didn't notice a roar rising up from the entrance of the mall._

"_You leave my son alone!" Out of nowhere, a clenched fist hit Phantommon in the face. The brown-haired man grabbed his wife and got her up standing in a split second before grabbing his son._

"_Dad, what's going on?"_

"_I don't know. And I won't stay to find out. Hurry Daniel! Get on your feet!"_

_But as Dan was about to get up and run, a golden scythe became visible behind his father's back._

"_You won't stay to find out, because you're about to move on to the next life…" Phantommon said in a sadistic manner before allowing his weapon to drop. As the sharp blade hit its target, a rain of blood squashed over the family. Dan felt drops in his face and felt his heart race. His panting became heavier a he looked at his mother. Her face had several drops of her husband's blood, but it didn't hide the expression of chock that spread over her face. Suddenly, she began to scream in horror. As Dan looked down at the lifeless body of his father, he felt his heart stop before passing out._

_/End of Flashback/_

Dan opened his eyes to stare up at the ceiling. He had awoken sometime later, lying on a small bed of wool in the mall. He had found his mother lying unconscious on a bed similar to his close by. As he tried to wake her up, a monstrous roar had echoed through the mall. Despite being afraid of what he might find, he had gone outside the mall. About one kilometer away from him, this gigantic, red demon-looking creature could be seen fighting some smaller monsters. It had been like living a nightmare. The first time after these incidents, he had tried to convince himself that he simply was trapped in a horrible nightmare, but there had been no mistaking it. He had been trapped in reality.

"I can't believe you got such good grades honey!"

"Mom, you're embarrassing me…"

Kari tried to shake her mother of when she reached to hug her for the third time in one minute. T.K and Davis smiled at her. Their smiles told her 'Glad it's not me'. She dropped her bag and instead went inside the house with Gatomon. Her mother then switched her attention to the boys.

"So how did you do?"

"Well, for now, let's just say Kari beat me in every class we took together." Davis said nervously but Mrs Kamiya just smiled at him.

"Well, we have to celebrate this. I'll go bake something nice!" She said, ignoring Davis's answer before tripping back into the house on her toes. T.K leant over to Davis and whispered:

"Wonder what will happen when Kari graduates?"

Both boys laughed at this while taking of their shoes and following the mother and daughter into the kitchen. Kari was sitting by the table along with her older brother Tai. Gatomon slept underneath her chair and behind Tai stood an orange lizard like digimon that slightly resembled a dinosaur. Patamon immediately flew over to Agumon to start a conversation with his old friend while DemiVeemon took place underneath the table, locking his eyes on the elegant white cat digimon under Kari chair.

"So, what do you want sweetheart? I could bake a fruitcake with oranges and pineapples or maybe a something with chocolate?"

"Mom, why don't we just take something from the fridge? You've been baking nonstop for like two weeks, there must be something in there that's good enough." Kari sounded tired, which she probably was too.

"O no. A special occasion like this calls for something directly from the owen."

" I don't really get the big deal." Tai said while stretching his right arm. "Kari just got her first grades, it's not like she's graduated or something."

"For your information son, your sister got better grades during her first year than you managed to get on all your three years. COMBINED!"

Tai flinched as his mother berated him. Something in his facial expression told Davis everything he needed to know about this claim. As Davis took the chair beside Kari, T.K sat down opposite to him. Mrs Kamiya was now trying to determine how much sugar she was going to use for her cake.

"So how's it going Tai?" Davis asked his friend. Except for Ken, Davis regarded Tai as his best friend and one of the most important persons in his life. He was a role model as the unofficial leader of the digidestined, as well as an awesome soccer player that Davis aimed to one day surpass.

"Not very good. I literally got my ass kicked this afternoon when I was trying to convince people in the park."

"Convince? Convince to do what?"

Kari giggled sleepily as she turned to face her older brother's protégé.

"I haven't told you? Tai's been working on how to establish friendly relations between humans and digimon ever since he graduated from high school last year. How can you have missed that?"

Davis just lifted his shoulders to show that he didn't know.

"So, have you made any progress yet?" T.K asked, obviously interested in this particular job.

"Not. At. All." Tai said. "Whenever I try to talk to people about it, they suddenly remembers "oh, I got an important meeting" or "oh, it's time for dinner"."

"Perhaps you should try a more diplomatic way of stating your opinion. Maybe you're going to much head on in this?" Mrs Kamiya said between her ingredients.

But Tai just shook his head.

"Diplomacy just isn't my thing."

"Well, I'm sure your sister could teach you a thing or two in the matter." Mrs Kamiya said while adding some extra fruits to her cake.

Kari just let her head fall to the table. If it was to rest or to hide the blush on her face, Davis couldn't tell. However, he couldn't do anything but smile at her reaction. She was so cute when she was tired.

"Maybe you can cooperate with someone that knows a bit more about diplomacy? Like Sora maybe?" T.K asked.

Tai froze at the mention of Sora's name. He turned to look at the wall behind him. Davis found this quite strange as he had always regarded Sora and Tai as something similar to best friends. Aside from Matt, he knew that Tai held Sora as his closest friend among the digidestined. They had known each other since they were children.

"Well, maybe I'll talk to Izzy about it." Tai said while still avoiding the others looks.

Kari sighed and raised her head to look at her older brother, who now had turned his gaze towards the ceiling.

"Are you still not talking to her? C'mon, don't be so stubborn. She must choose her loved ones herself."

Davis was confused. Loved ones? What did she mean by that?

"It's just that… I thought we were on to something and then she starts dating Matt out of nowhere. I never saw any indication for that during our adventures."

"Even so, if she really likes him, there's no reason for her not to be with him. You don't own her Tai."

"I never said that! I just… "

T.K sharpened his ears.

"Just… what?"

Tai sighed and shook his head. He didn't know what to say. It was too hard to describe. He had this feeling in his gut every time he thought about Sora ever since she began dating Matt. It felt like something had been scratched between them. Something that couldn't be fixed with duct tape. And if duct tape doesn't work, it's really broken.

"You know son, girls aren't forbidden to change their mind about who they love. If you just show her how much she could win by switching to you, I don't doubt she would do it."

"Mom, that's not how it works. Matt's my best friend. And best friends doesn't steal each other's girls."

"Now you're making it sound like the boy owns the girl again." Davis said with a grin.

"O shut up Davis! You don't understand this."

Tai made an almost undetectable nod in Kari's direction so only Davis could see it. As Davis got what Tai wanted to say, he just closed his mouth that had opened to give his mentor a stingy answer and turned away. Kari didn't seem to notice as she tried to tempt Miko, their old cat, to jump into her lap. T.K however, noticed the silent conversation between the two digidestined leaders and caught onto what they were saying. Tai's point was that Davis didn't understand how to deal with love and his proof was that Davis had been unable to get Kari's attention in the matter. T.K smiled. He knew Davis had a crush on Kari. But as much fun it could be to watch them, he felt a little worried. Lately, his own feelings for Kari had begun to change. They had known each other for more than half of their lives. They had stuck together no matter what. Wouldn't they make a perfect couple?

'_No! Don't think that way!'_ T.K thought to himself. '_What if you get stuck in the same situation as Tai and Matt?'_  
Aside from Kari, T.K had come to regard Davis as his best friend. Despite their rivalry in several things, they could always count for the other to cover their back. And it was like Tai said, _Best friends doesn't steal each other's girls!_

**Hope this isn't going too slow. This is to be an adventure fic but you will just have to wait a little longer for the action to start! But as we say in Sweden: If someone is waiting for something good, he can never wait too long!**_  
_


	3. Family ties

**Here comes the third and last chapter in this chapter release barrage! I know it's a bit shorter than the other two, but I promise I will make up for it in chapter four. That's when the true action starts! but read this while your waiting! and plz R&R!**

_Chapter Three_

As the clock stroke 22.00, a roar could be heard throughout Tokyo Airport, as the aero plane from America landed. The roar reminded Davis of times long gone. It reminded him of the first time he had met Veemon back in the digital world. Not too long after meeting his partner, they had been attacked by a Monochromon, a dinosaur digimon that had been under the control of the Digimon Emperor. He remembered the hatred he had felt towards the Emperor that day, for making an innocent creature do something it didn't want.  
'_It's funny how things can suddenly just turn around.'_ He thought as the former Digimon Emperor and his best friend Ken appeared in the hall.

"Hey Ken! Over here!"

Snapped back to reality by the voice of his best friend, Ken raised his look to find Davis, T.K and Kari waving for him. Seeing them, he felt warm inside. Now he was safe. He knew that as long as he was with his friends, nothing would be able to hurt him. Not even Daemon. They had beat him once and they could beat him again! As he made his way over to his friends, his face was covered by a smile of pure happiness.

"Hey, how's it going Kenny-boy?" Davis said with a grin and put his arm around Kens shoulders. Ken laughed at Davis. He was alike.

"I'm fine mr. googlehead. Could you please allow me to breath now?" he said while he pounded his friends back jokingly.

Davis let go and Ken proceeded to his other friends. He even got a hug from Kari.

"Hey! How come you never hug me when we meet?" Davis wanted to know.

"Because I see you every day. I haven't seen Ken for one year you know." Kari giggled when she saw Davis strained face.

As Ken and T.K laughed at Davis's stubborn expression, he found himself happy for the first time in a while. He sighed with relief, but he knew he still had to tell them what he knew. Why not now?

"Guys, there's something… I need to talk to you about." He began.

"You think it can wait? The train to Odaiba is about to leave in ten minute and if we don't hurry, we will miss it!" Davis said while checking his watch. Ken nodded slightly as Davis began to push the others towards the exit.

'_It's already summer'_ , Dan thought for himself as he walked the small road that lead through the park. His dark-brown hair flickered in the summer breezes and his blue eyes had an empty look in them. He always enjoyed walking in the park. Somehow, it made him feel at ease. As he picked up his cellphone, he discovered he had a message from his sister.

"My train may be a little after schedule, but it will arrive in about half an hour. I've missed you big brother!"

As he read the last words, he couldn't help but smile. 'I've missed you too, sis', he said for himself, before turning around to walk the long way down to the subway.

"Are you serious?"

Davis looked like he had seen a ghost as he remembered the hooded digimon that had literally swept the carpet with their digimon four years earlier. Ken had just told them about his suspicions and about his dream. Kari had paled as if she just had gotten a bucket ice-cold water dropped over her head, at the mention of the dark ocean. Ken knew she too had experienced it's darkness, and while she hadn't been dragged as deep into it as Ken himself had, he knew it must have been a terrible experience.

"I can't think of anyone else still alive that would want to take my dark spore." Ken said.

"But we imprisoned Daemon. Don't you remember? We sent him to the dark ocean!"

"It's not impossible to escape from the dark ocean. For example, Kari and T.K managed to get out."

Davis turned to look at his friends. T.K nodded slightly as if to show that he understood Kens point. Kari didn't give any visible reaction to Ken words, but Davis could see that she remembered.

"But if Daemon's really back, then why haven't he wreaked havoc yet?"

"None of us have been to the digiworld in quite a while, have we? If he escaped from the dark ocean, he would most likely return there before going on to our world again." Ken said.

That made sense, Davis thought. But still, wouldn't we know if the digiworld was in danger?

"When you say Daemon, are you talking about a digimon then?"

The voice made everyone in the compartment jump. They hadn't noticed the little, brown-haired girl that sat closest to the window had awoken.

"Well, yeah. Kind of." Davis said while scratching the back of his head.

"You know you shouldn't speak of Digimon in public. Most people still dislikes them." She said while yawning nonchalantly.

"Well sorry if we made you angry." Kari spoke up for the first time since they entered the compartment. But the little girl just smiled at them.

"Don't worry. I'm not like that. I don't hold what digimon did in the past against them. There were also digimon fighting for our side along with the digidestined."

Davis grinned and stretched his back.

"Well what luck! You happen to talk to one of the strongest digidestined there is!" he said, but got a pound in the head by T.K.

"Just be quiet Davis. So how do you know so much about digimon?" he asked the girl.

"Well, I just have that ability to snap things up out of nowhere."

That sentence made something click in Kari's mind. She happened to know someone that used that way of describing himself quite often.

"May I ask what your name is?"

"I'm Miyuki. Miyuki Isashi." She said with a warm smile on his face.

At the mention of her last name, both T.K and Davis froze but Kari's smile just enlarged. Just as T.K was about to say something, Kari spoke up again.

"You don't happen to be related to Daniel Isashi, do you?"

"Oh, you know my brother?" Miyuki's smiled grew as she heard the name of her brother. T.K now noticed the similarity between the two siblings. They had the same round face and dark-brown hair, as well as the same dark-blue eyes. However, Miyuki's facial expression of happiness and luck was one he had never seen covering Dans face.

"Actually, I do. We take science class together. I'm Kari Kamiya. Nice to meet you!"

Miyuki looked up at the older girl. She seemed much more relaxed now that they weren't talking about digimon anymore. That made her happy, somehow.

"I have to apologize if he have done anything stupid. He can be a handful sometimes." She said to keep the conversation up.

"Don't worry, he hasn't done anything stupid. He have actually been of big help to me." Kari said with a smile. Miyuki just giggled at the last sentence.

"My brother helping someone? You must be really nice if he have helped you with something. He normally doesn't care for anything."

"Yeah, I've seen pretty much of that from his part during our history classes. I'm Takeru Takaishi by the way, but please just call me T.K."

"Let me guess, he have slept through your classes?"

T.K nodded.

"Yeah, I don't get how he can do that and still score such high grades. Are you too like that?"

Miyuki laughed at the question.

"Please, I'm nothing compared to him. People say that I'm smart but that's just because they don't know my brother. I believe he could be even smarter than that child prodigy Ken Ichijouji if he just wanted."

"Well, I happen to be that Ken Ichijouji." Ken said from his corner.

Miyuki turned to face Ken.

"You are? Soooo sorry! I didn't mean to offend you!" she exclaimed as she constantly bowed her head.

"Don't worry, no offence taken." Ken said with a disturb look. "Hey, sop bowing your head, you'll hit something."

Miyuki raised her head. She still looked guilty for what she just had said. But please, what had been the odds that Ken Ichijouji would be sitting in the same compartment as her?

"You know what? I it will be awhile before we arrive in Odaiba, anyone up for a card game?" Davis said.

"You bet!" T.K said, tightly followed by Ken. Kari sighed.

'_Boys',_ she thought, before turning to Miyuki.

The subway wasn't as crowded as Dan first had thought it would. As it usually was overcrowded he would've thought it would be over overcrowded now that school was finally finished. But no, there were only a few people standing down the railway.  
'_Guess most of the students have already gone home'_, he thought. '_Unlike me.'_  
As soon as he thought it, he could hear the train that was about to arrive at the platform. A second later,he could see it turning around the corner. He felt the breeze when it passed him and turned around to see it slow down the pace until it stopped completely. As the doors opened, people immediately began to stream onto the platform. As he stood there and looked at the streaming people, someone sneaked up at him from behind.

"Heey big brother!"

Dan felt his sister throw herself over his shoulder to hug him. The sudden change in weight balance made him stumble and fall to the ground. Looking up at his younger sister happy face, he couldn't but feel happy.

"What's with that face bro? If I didn't know better, I would think someone was sitting on you!"

"Well, if I didn't know you better, I would wonder who it was sitting on my back."

Laughing at this, the two siblings stood up and brushed the dirt of each other. As Dan reached to pick up his sisters bag, the digidestined caught up to their travelling companion. Upon seeing him, T.K and Davis's eyes narrowed. Ken just stared down at the other child prodigy while Kari walked straight up to him with a smile on her face.

"Hey Dan! How are you doing?"

The brown-haired boy looked up from his sister to look at Kari. He seemed surprised by her sudden appearance, but kept a cool expression as always.

"Kari? What are you doing here?"

"I was going to meet a friend of mine. And I just happened to run into your sister. I didn't even know you had one?"

She studied him to see what kind of reaction he would give, but as always he didn't move a muscle.

"Well, you never asked, did you?" he said.

"Good point." Kari said with a smile. She liked Dan. Despite his kind of weird personality, he could be really nice when he wanted to.

But as Davis, T.K and Ken made their way up to them, Dan turned around to look at his sister.

"Guess we should be going then, let's go."

"Don't be such a downer Dan, why can't we stay and hang out with Kari and the others for a while?" Miyuki tried doing the cute puppy face, but her brother remained unaffected.

"I'm tired and need to rest. And I don't want you running around on your own, at least not the first night you're here."

Miyuki sighed, obviously disappointed but she accepted her brothers decision. She nodded and turned around to wave goodbye to Kari and the others. Kari waved back, though she felt a little confused by Dan hasty goodbye. She wasn't used to being kept at arm's length like this. At least not by Dan. As the two siblings walked away with backs turned, Kari was beginning to wonder why Dan acted the way he did.

**Now, some of you may have been waiting for something interesting to happen? Well wait no more! In the next chapter, they will enter the Digital World again! Hang tight for the actions about to begin! and don't forget to Review!**


	4. Digital once again

**Alright... so I couldn't hold myself! Chapter four! it's now that the action begins! Guess I was as eager to get to it as you :D I also noted that I in my earlier chapter didn't do any good paragraphing. Guess I still need to get used to the equipment (or learn to double check my work before publishing...). Anyway, this chapter will take them back to the digital world and it will also explore more of Daniel Isashi's dark past! Enjoy and R&R!**_  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original stuff from Digimon. The only things I own are my OCs (Daniel, Miyuki and Theo)!**

_Chapter four_

The sunlight lit up the small kitchen. Dan sighed. The golden locket in his hand held a picture of his family. Back when they were still all happy. His seven year old self smiled back at him. Behind him, his mother held the infant Miyuki. Both of them seemed happy. And beside them, their father stood, smiling a smile of pure happiness. He had a family, something he wanted to protect. He had told Dan that no matter how great the trouble was, there was always a greater solution.

/ Flashback/

_Dan felt the summer breeze flow through his hair. They were sitting in the park. His father had taken him there to play soccer, the best thing he knew about. But now, the sun was setting and they were just sitting there, looking out over Odaiba from the slight hill. It was beautiful._

"_Dad?"_

_His father turned to look at him._

"_Yeah, what is it son?"_

"_Why are you always working so hard to get more money? It seems so unfair that mom always gets to stay home and play with Yuki and me."_

_His father laughed. But as Dan still looked up at him confused when he stopped, he just smiled at his son._

"_It's not unfair. Your mother is the only one that can care for you the way she does. I could never take her place."_

"_Why not?"_

_It was this childish curiosity that made him ask. But he heard how bad it sounded against his mother and felt ashamed so he said:_

"_Doesn't it feel hard to have to push yourself at work all the time when moms home doing nothing?"_

_Smiling at this, his father put his hand on Dans head._

"_No, it doesn't."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because I have something I want to protect. I have something precious to me that gives me the strength to keep on going. No matter how hard my work may be, I will keep on fighting, for your sake. And your sister."_

_Daniel didn't understand. Why would he want to protect people that did nothing to protect him?_

"_I… don't understand?"_

"_You see son, as long as you are happy, I see no problem having to work all day. You and your sister are the most important things in my life. As long as you are happy, I am happy."_

"_But isn't that a problem then? If you can't see us, how do you know if we're happy?"_

_His father laughed again._

"_No matter how great the trouble, there is always a greater solution. I trust your mother to keep you happy while I'm gone."_

/ End of Flahsback/

But you never said that you would be gone forever like this. Dan felt his heart slow down the pace. And mother haven't really kept us happy with all her in and out from the hospital. Why did it have to run out like this?

"Big bro?"

Dan snapped back to reality by the sound of his sister's voice. He looked around and found her standing in front of the door that led to her room.

"Are you blaming yourself for father's death again?" she knew he had been taking the blame on himself for their father's death. She couldn't remember the incident herself, she had just been two years old, but she had been told the story afterwards by her brother.

"I was just thinking." He said and turned around to look out through the window. He didn't want to make his sister worry about him right now. She did that all the time.

"Don't play dumb, big bro. you were just thinking about that incident."

"No I wasn't!"

He stared at his sister, who stared back at him. He bit his lip in an attempt to sharpen his glare but failed. Yuki just sighed and began to smile. Why did she always do that?

"You know? You could need a break! Let's go to the beach!" she said.

Dan snatched. What?

"I don't like beaches. I always end up getting burned by the sun."

"You know there's something called sunscreen? O well, I'm going anyway. If you want to keep an eye on me, you better follow!"

She stuck out her tongue against him in a teasing manner. Dan got up from his chair and reached to grab her.

"Why you-!"

"See ya there!" She smiled while ducking from his stretched arm and running towards the door.

Dan sighed as she exited. Man, what's with that kid? She didn't even eat breakfast. As he looked towards her room, he noticed a small sign on it, pointing for him to enter. Inside, he found a bottle of sunscreen with a note on it saying "_Sunscreen for bleaching farts"_.  
'_Oh, ha ha ha'_. He thought for himself. But he put it on anyway. He couldn't just ignore it when his sister tried to be kind. As he exited her room, he thought '_Well, I better go after her'_ before grabbing his dark-blue jacket and rolled up the sleeves. He put on his usual black sport gloves (without fingertips) and strapped a blue fillet around his forehead to keep his hair out of the way. As he closed the door behind him and locked it, he wondered what Kari was doing that same moment. Why was he thinking about her?

* * *

Rrrriing! Kari didn't bother with the telephone that was calling. She put the pillow over her head and tried to go back to sleep. Someone else could take.  
Rrrriiing! Oh please Tai! Just take it! RRrrrrriiii-! Finally someone took it. Kari removed the pillow and put it back in place beneath her head. But just seconds later, she heard someone knock on her door.

"Kari? Are you awake? It's T.K!"

Kari sighed. Why was he calling at a time like this?

"Just put the phone out there, I'll take it!"

She heard Tai pass on the message to T.K. She sat up and yawned while trying to stretch her arms. She got up and opened the door. At first blended by the light, she noticed the phone that lied in front of her.

"Yeah, it's me." She said with a tired voice while picking up the phone.

"Hey, are you awake yet?" T.K sounded like he did this every morning.

"Just barely. What do you want?"

"Well, I was thinking about things we could do to really get the summer vacation feeling in and the first thing that came to mind was to have a beach party. I've already invited Davis and Ken. They said that they were coming."

Kari sighed again. It wasn't that she didn't want to go; she just couldn't understand why he had to call so early.

"Just give a couple of minutes to wake up. And then some more time to get ready."

"That's alright. We'll meet at my house when you're ready. See ya then!"

"Bye." Kari said with a lazy look on her face. She dropped the phone and went back inside her room. Once she got to the bed, she collapsed on it.

'_Where did those boys get their energy?'_she thought as she rolled over. Well, perhaps it was just her being sleepy. She hadn't got so much sleep last night. She had been awake, thinking about Daniel. What was it that made him so different whenever he was around other people?

* * *

Daniel felt the wind blow in his hair when he was cycling towards the river. It wasn't that far from his apartment, but he wanted to get there as soon as possible if Miyuki would need his help with something. Not that she usually did. She could take care of herself, despite her age. But well, it was part of the big brothers unofficial duties to always look after his sister. As he slide around a corner, he could see the bridge that towered over the river. After passing over it, he could see the beach where Miyuki probably was playing already. He parked his bicycle by a tree and went down to search for his sister, but he didn't have to look for long…

"Hey big bro!"

At the mention of his name, Dan turned around to see Miyuki come running towards him, along with a blonde boy that seemed to be around the same age as her.

"You came down after all! This is Theodore by the way. He's from America!"

Theodore smiled shyly at the older boy that remained unfazed.

"Please just call me Theo." The boy said with a blush on his face.

As Dan met the younger boy's eyes, his face softened a bit.

"Pleasure to meet you Theo; I'm Yuki's older brother Dan."

He then turned to face his sister.

"Seriously Yuki, you've been here 15 hours at its peak and you're already making new friends?"

She glared accusingly at her older brother, but he didn't move a muscle.

"You know, it wouldn't bite for you to try and do the same. You've been here for almost one year and have only made one new friend."

Dan frowned.

"I have? Who?"

Looking up at her brothers confused face, Yuki's facial expression returned to its usual happy state.

"Don't play dumb! I can see that you have a soft spot for Kari! C'mon Theo! Let's go back to the water!"

"Wha-! I have not, you little-!" But Yuki was already on her way back to the water with Theo trying to keep up. However, the both seemed happy so Dan couldn't help but give them a small smile. That was, until Yuki turned around and made a heart shape with her hands while at the same time sticking out her tongue at him, which caused him to go back to his usual expression. '_Well, at least I know where she is now.'_ He thought for himself, before backing up to the shadow of one of the trees and leaning back against it.

* * *

As Kari rang the doorbell at place, it only took a few moments before the door was open. T.K smiled at her, but Kari just stepped in.

"Are the others here yet?" She asked.

"They're here alright. They are lying in the sofa. It seems they were downtown and partied it out yesterday and maan, do they have a hangover! Or what do you say guys?" he shouted the last sentence in the direction of the TV room. Only seconds later, Davis's strained voice came flying back to them.

"Shut up T.P! When I get over this, you'll be in a whole lot of trouble!"

T.K grinned at this, but Kari turned to him with a tired face.

"You have been teasing them about this all morning, haven't you?"

T.K seemed a little nervous about answering. He rubbed the back of his head and look at the floor in front of him.

"Well, they say you should take your chances, right?"

Kari rolled her eyes. She got inside and went to the kitchen, where she began filling an old bottle with cold water. When she was finished, she went to the boys that was lying like dead in the sofa.

"Here, drink up. You'll feel better." Kari didn't sound as kind as she usually did. To be honest, she sounded kind of annoyed but the boys didn't seem to care.

"Thanks, Kari. You're an angel!" Davis said and took the bottle. As he had emptied it, he realized what he had just said.

"I-I mean you're a really good friend. Yeah, that's what I meant!"

As Kari gave Ken a new bottle of water, she didn't seem to notice his apology. Still blushing furiously, Davis stood up and walked over to T.K.

"Now, what was it that you said earlier?" he said with an evil grin on his face. T.K froze and took a step back. Looking at his friend's scared face, Davis's face brightened up.

"Wahaha! You should see the look on your face! You look like you just had just kissed a Numemon!"

face was straightened out as he realized his friend had never intended to hurt him. As the two boys laughed, Ken had drank his bottle dry and was making his way over to them along with Kari.

"That feels much better. Thanks Kari. Now, weren't we going to the beach?" Ken said as he picked up his stuff.

* * *

Tai was looking at the phone. If he just pressed some of the buttons, he would be in contact with Sora. He knew the others were right; Sora could help him with his busyness. But how was he supposed to ask her for help when he had been careful not to even look at her for almost a year? And what if she thought he was a coward, just because he didn't look her in the eye when he said it? Yeah, maybe it would be better to ask her face to face. But how was he gonna say it? It would be much easier to just call her…

As he sat there and thought about his issues, Agumon exited their room with a big yawn. Inhaling the spores of the flowers that were placed at the table, he felt his nose tickle. Trying to catch his breath in order to prevent the inpreventable, he sneezed out a fireball that sat the table on fire.

"Damn, who put those flowers there? Tai? Could I get a little help here?"

But Tai just sat there. He seemed to be thinking about something.

"Tai! The tables on fire! Tai?!"

Still no reaction. As Agumon took a deep breath to shout at his partner to wake up, a sticking sound could be heard throughout the apartment. The fire alarm had been set off! Finally waking up from his trance-like state, Tai turned to look at the table.

"Wha-What the heck just happened here? Why didn't you tell me sooner Agumon?!" he shouted as he reached for the extinguisher.

* * *

As they turned around the corner and finally reached the beach. Kari could see that they weren't alone. More people than them seemed to regard a beach party as the ultimate way to start a summer vacation. As they made their way through the many different visitors, Kari spotted a familiar, dark-blue jacket.

"Eh, guys? I think I forgot something, I'll be right back!" she said and turned in the direction of the parking lot.

"Ok, we'll wait here." T.K said, though Davis and Ken were already making their way into the water.

"Don't hold up for me, I won't be gone for long." She smiled at T.K, who just nodded and turned to the blue surface and began to follow his friends.

Kari made her way to the tree that currently held a boy with dark-brown hair and blue eyes.

"Dan?"

Daniel snapped out of his thoughts and looked down at Kari. She smiled uncertainly up at him where he was lying on his branch.

"Kari? So you're here too?" he said. His voice was different from yesterday. It sounded more calm and warm, more like he usually did when they spoke.

"Yeah, I thought you said you hated beaches?"

"I do, but my sister obviously doesn't." Dan muttered.

Kari grabbed one of the lower branches and tried to swing herself up. She landed on one of the smaller branches. But just as she braced herself to climb higher, the branch she was standing on cracked. She felt her heart skip a beat as she fell but a split second later, she felt someone grab her arm. Looking up, she saw that Dan had taken a swing downwards and now held her arm in a tight grip. Smiling slightly, he pulled her up using only his right arm. Man, what did he hide underneath that jacket?

"Thanks, that was close." she said when he had pulled her up.

"It was nothing." He said as he climbed up to his original branch and reached out his hand to help her up. She took it and after a little struggle, they rested on the same branch. Kari felt the summer breeze blow through her hair and cool her down. It was relaxing. She felt so at peace.

"Why did you leave so hastily yesterday?" she asked.

Dan took his time before answering. He rubbed the back of his head and yawned slightly before finally saying something.

"Don't know. Guess I just felt uncomfortable being in such a large group." He didn't look at her. She tried to tell what he was thinking by looking at his face, but he hadn't moved a muscle. Well, he never did.

"Why do you always avoid talking with people? I've never seen you speaking with anyone!"

He stretched out his arms over his head before answering.

"Well, I'm talking to you, right?"

"You know what I mean!"

He rolled over so she couldn't see his face, but his voice changed to a more offensive sound.

"It's none of your business Kari. Make sure it remains that way!"

Kari looked down at her friend. At least she though he was her friend. Feeling left out, she was about to contradict when suddenly, screams could be heard from down at the beach. Dan flew up on his feet to see what happened. Panic was spreading across the beach as a big hole in the water began to open up in the middle of the river.

"What the hell is going on?!" Dan said as he took a jump down to the ground. When Kari got down beside him, they heard a scream through the turmoil.

"Big brother! Help me!" As Dan took a deep breath he saw his sister being dragged out in the water by the streams.

"Dammit! Yuki!"

Dan took off in the direction he had seen his little sister. Not knowing what to do, Kari took off after him. She felt pushes from all sides, but somehow managed to keep up with the athletic boy. As they reached the water, Dan quickly located his sister, who was being sucked towards the hole along with Davis, Ken, T.K and Theo. Not bothering throwing of his jacket, he threw himself into the water and began to swim towards the hole.

"Wait, Dan!"

What was she going to do? As she saw her friends being drawn towards the hole, she felt her heart tremble. Trying to remain calm, she tried to think clearly. What would Tai have done?

Knowing the answer, she jumped after Dan and began swimming towards him, catching up fast. Dan was just about to reach his sister when the hole was just two meters away.

"Hang on Yuki!" she heard him shout, before the portal expanded. Realizing they were all hanging in the air, Kari gave off a scream as they fell down into the bottomless hole. During their fall, she saw Dan desperately reaching out to grab his sister's hand. As he finally got ahold of it, he pulled her in and covered her in his arms in an attempt to protect her from the fall. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but smile at this proof of how strong the bond was between brother and sister.

**Yeah, the bond between siblings are unbreakable. At least in the TV-series. Now the big question is: How will Dan react upon interacting with Digimon again for the first time since "that incident"? Stay put to find out!**


	5. Cracks of hatred

**Now this is really heating up, isn't it? The children (if the older ones really can be called that) have finally made their way back to digiworld! Now the big question is: How will Daniel react at his first interaction with Digimon since his fathers death?**_  
_

**Note: This will be a double release, so don't bump out if you think this chapter ends too soon!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or stuff from the original Digimon! I only own's my OCs Daniel, Miyuki and Theodore!**

_Chapter five_

DemiVeemon was fast asleep. Davis had awoken him when he was about to leave for the beach party, but DemiVeemon hadn't bothered to come with him. He was so boring to be around when he had a hangover. He seriously needed to learn where to draw the line, and even more not to cross it. As the blue digimon rolled over, he was blinded by a blue light and fell out of bed.

"Ouch!" he said as his head hit the floor. Shaking it to wake up prominently, he wondered what had awoken him.

Looking around, he noticed his partner's digivice lying on the bedside table. Sighing at his friends forgetfulness, he climbed back up at the bed to take a closer look. The screen was shining in a blinding light, almost as when opening a digiportal.

"I wonder what it wants?" DemiVeemon said and bent over to try and make it stop. The moment he touched it, he felt a tickling feeling around his belly. Picking up the digivice, the room was engulfed in a flash of white and blue light and then… he was gone!

* * *

Dan wouldn't be able to recall what happened afterwards. Everything he had thought of was the safety of his sister. He didn't even feel the ground at impact. All he could remember was waking up surrounded by Kari, Davis and Theo.

"Daniel?" Not fully awaken, Kari's voice sounded even more soft than usual in his ears. Taking a deep breath, he tried to sit up.

"Don't move yet! Your body still hasn't recovered!"

At first ignoring her, he tried to raise his body but immediately felt the exhaustion from earlier return. Kari put her hand on his chest and tried to bend him back into lying position. Realizing he couldn't do anything in this state, he allowed her to carefully put him back the way he was. But there was something that worried him…

"Miyuki?" he couldn't force out more than a weak whisper, but Kari heard him anyway.

"Don't worry, she's ok. She went with T.K and Ken to get something to eat."

Sighing with relief, Dan leaned back and relaxed. Taking slow breaths to slow down his racing heart, he felt the breeze running though his hair. The winds were blowing unusually hard. And as his body finally relaxed, his ears picked up the sound of footsteps. On leafs?

"That would be them. Davis, think you and Theo could go see if they need any help?" Kari said.

Davis just nodded and put a hand on Theo's back. As the two other boys left, Dan got a better sight of where he was. What he saw made his heart skip a beat. He wasn't at the beach in Odaiba, he was in a forest! He was lying under a tree that seemed to be of unnatural nature. It was covered in leafs even down to its roots, at which he was lying. He could see a small river flow close by and on the other side of that river, he could see someone coming out of the forest. One second later, the silhouettes of Ken, T.K and Miyuki became visible. Turning to Kari, he saw that she had been studying him.

"What is this place? Where am i?"

He tried not to sound too offensive, but failed. He was so tired he could barely get the words out of his mouth, let alone control his voice.

"We've been transported to the digital world. At least I think so. That hole in the water that opened back in Odaiba was a portal."

Hearing this, Dan's eyes widened.

"What did you just say?"

"I think we've been transported to the Digiworld."

Dan felt his heart beat faster and faster. No, this couldn't be! Why would he of all people be transported to the Digiworld? Feeling his strength return, he sat up and leaned against the tree in an attempt to ease his heart's pace.

"And what do you mean "I think so"?"

Kari looked around before answering.

"It looks so different from when I was here last time. Everything is so dark and gloomy."

"You mean you've been to this stinking place before?"

Kari looked down at him with a shocked face.

"There's no need to talk like that. And yes, I've been here before. I am a digidestined after all."

Dan felt his breath become heavier. He could feel the blood rise through his head, giving him energy. As he was about to stand up, Davis came running over to them, making a noice.

"Hey Kari! Look who's showed up!"

Beside him, a strange blue creature ran waving to them. On Davis's other side, a white, cat-like creature that seemed to wear green gloves ran. The cat ran up to Kari while Davis and Veemon stopped in front of them. Dan clenched his fist. These were Digimon! Just like back then…

"Gatomon! How did you get here?"

"I don't know. I saw your digivice glow so I picked it up. Next I remember is waking up a little bit away from here."

Kari and Gatomon continued to speak to each other, but Dan didn't hear them. He was in mental shock. If there were other digimon here, then _that_ digimon was also somewhere around here. For his inner eye, he saw the golden, scythe-like weapon glimmer in the sunlight as it fell, followed by a rain of blood. He remembered that twisted laugh, the sadistic jokes. And that creature was somewhere here!

"Ok ok, I get it! It's mysterious alright, but we can't think on an empty stomach! Why don't we take a snack and think about this later?"

Davis's stomach gave off a roar that almost made VenoMyotismon's roar pale in comparison. At least Dan thought that. Looking up at Kari who raised her head from Gatomon, she smiled at Davis.

"Sounds like a good idea."

* * *

Tai was staring at the phone again. He had been temporarily distracted by a pink light coming from Kari's room, but as he checked it, nothing seemed unusual. Well, except for Gatomon not taking her "cat-nap" on the floor. It was unlike her to go out on her own. As Kari left alone this morning, maybe she went out to look for her?  
'_No!_' Tai thought. '_Focus on your own problem now!'_  
Maybe he could call Sora and ask if he could meet her somewhere? That way, he might be able to get a preview on what she thought about him? Yeah, that sounded fair enough. But as he was about to grab the phone, it suddenly began to ring. Surprised, Tai picked up the phone and pressed the button.

"Hello, Kamiya residence?"

"Tai? That you? Great! I need to talk to you about something!" said a worried voice through the phone.

"Izzy? What's up? You sound like we have another Diaboromon incident up our sleeves?"

"Well, I almost wish we had, at least then I would know what was going on. Come over here quick! A digiportal have opened at the beach!"

Tai felt his heart freeze. A digiportal? At the beach? That's where Kari and the others went! Having lost all thoughts of Sora in the blink of an eye, Tai went to the hall to grab his jacket.

"I'll be right there! He shouted in the phone before dropping it and putting his hand on the doorknob.

"Agumon! Get over here, we are going out!"

Hearing his partners call, Agumon came stumbling out of their room with an old sock sticking out of his nose.

"What's happening Tai?" he said while pulling out the sock and throwing it back into the room with a disgusted look on his face.

"A digiportal have opened at the beach. We're going down to check it out."

Opening the door, the old friends were on the move once again!

* * *

"You can't be serious!"

They had just finished their dinner and the gang was sitting in a ring, with the exception of Dan that had jumped up. T.K had just given him, Miyuki and Theo a device he had found while he was out searching for food. Though it looked a little different from the other's, there was no doubting what it was. It was a digivice!

"I'm sure those are meant for you guys, otherwise you wouldn't have been dragged here."

Dan stared down at the little device in his hand. It slightly resembled a smart phone, though it was a little bit thicker. Also, the screen was a bit smaller and there were four buttons forming a circle around a bigger one at the lower part. (for those who have watched Digimon Savers/ Data squad, this digivice bears a resemblance to the digivice burst, but with a more… original design, more similar to the D-tector from Digimon Frontier).  
Looking at it, he felt his heart tremble, not with fear but with rage. After what the digimon had put him through, was he supposed to help them now?!

"Don't worry, it will be fine. Your digimon partner will protect you. As soon as we find him, we-"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Dan roared as he threw his Digivice in the river, rage burning in his eyes. He wasn't going to help something that had caused him so much pain in the past! But as he turned around to go, he was hit in the head by something hard. Turning around, he saw T.K standing there with clenched fist.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!"

Dan stood up in his full height and glared at T.K, who took a step back at their eye contact. What was with this guy?

"What does it look like? Walking away! I have absolutely no interest in helping those mindless bastards!"

At this nostalgic remark, Ken snapped.

"The digimon are just as much a living intelligent being as you are! What have they ever done to you?!"

"Yeah, like you're one to talk about mistreating digimon. I've heard you did some ugly things yourself, _emperor_!"

The last word made Ken freeze. He knew! He knew about his dark past! Trembling with guilt, he sat down and took a defensive stance with his arms covering his head. This made Davis goes through the roof (or tree tops).

"Don't you dare insult my friends!" he was on his feet in a split second and charged at the other boy with clenched fists. The girls and Theo watched in shock at the sudden out broken confrontation. As Davis threw a punch at Dan, the other boy simply grabbed his clenched fist in a hard grip. Unable to get loose, Davis aimed a new punch at Dan head with his free hand, which was easily avoided. Not wasting any time, Dan clenched his free right hand and gave Davis a nonchalant punch in the gut, causing the other boy to lose his breath. Dan stared at him with his cold eyes and simply backed away, allowing the other boy to fall to the ground and catch his breath.

Kari couldn't move. She just stared up at Daniel with a scared look in her eyes. She had never seen him like this. Sure, he had never been one to smile and give a warm first impression, but this cold and furious trait was something new. He stared down at the other two boys that glared back at him. As his eyes turned towards the other four, with Ken lying on the ground, Theo who looked like he had seen a ghost, Kari that looked at him with a shocked expression and Miyuki who stared angry at her brother.

"Let's go Yuki, I have no interest in these… morons!"

"Quit acting like such a jerk bro! I'm not going anywhere!"

Dan stared down at his sister. At first, Kari almost thought he was going to hit her too, but he just turned around and began to walk away.

"Fine then! But if you're gonna stay, then you're on your own!"

He didn't even turn around to look at her. Miyuki didn't seem to care. She just glared angrily at her brothers back. Kari looked from Dan, to his sister, then back again. She didn't know what to do.

"Wait! Dan! Don't go out there! It's dangerous!"

"Let him go! He won't listen anyway!"

Kari turned around and expected to see Davis or T.K, but she was met by Miyuki's face. It no longe held the angry expression it had a second ago. It was filled with concern, but at the same time she looked defiant.

"Kari!"

Kari snatched at the mention of her name. Turning her attention forward again, she saw that Dan had stopped and looked at her over his shoulder.

"You better look after Yuki!"

As his eyes met Kari's for the first time that evening, Kari nodded. Daniel closed his eyes and gave her what she thought was a small smile. And with that, he was gone. Swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

Tai stopped and stared down at the beach. But what had caught his attention wasn't the still open hole in the central part of the river. He could see Izzy scaning something on his laptop with Tentomon looking up at his partner. But futher down at the beach, someone was looking for answers to what could've triggered the portals opening. There, accompanied by a pink, bird-like digimon, stood Sora!

**Whoa! So Tai and Sora meet again! And Dan has taken off on his own in the Digiworld, without neither a digivice nor a partner! How will this turn out?**


	6. Something bugging you?

__**Now things are finally starting to heat up! This double release will continue with the revealence of Dan's past to Kari and Tai is finally reunited with Sora! How will things turn out? Read to find out!**

_Chapter six_

"Izzy? What is Sora doing here?"

Izzy looked up from his computer. He looked puzzled.

"Well, I called her here. I thought we should assemble as much of the team as possible. This is something that hasn't happened for four years."

Tai felt his heart tremble. What was this feeling? He had felt it once before, when he stood before SkullGreymon. Back then, he had been the first to get a crest, the things they needed to digivolve their partners to ultimate level. But in his rush in using it, the digivolution had become twisted. Instead of digivovling properly, Greymon had dark digivolved to SkullGreymon and went berserk. Standing before his corrupted partner, Tai had realized his wrong doing and the guilt had overwhelmed him so bad that he thought his heart would crack. But Sora wasn't the twisted skeleton monster of one of his friends, so why was he feeling like it?

"Tai? Are you ok?"

Tai snapped back to reality. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed Sora moving over to him. He realized he was hyperventilating and took a deep breath.

"Eeh, I'm fine… it's just…"

"Just…what?"

Well, he had planned to say it to her. Why not now?

She looked at him with a soft smile on her face. That made Tai feels really bad. She was so sweet, how could she smile at him like this after how he had treated her?

"Sora, I need to talk to you."

"How funny! I was about to ask you for a talk too!"

This made Tai sink through the sand. She sounded so calm, as if nothing had happened between them. Agumon, picking up on his partners intentions, walked over to Izzy and left Tai with Sora.  
'_About time.' He thought.  
_Now that they were alone, Tai found it hard to breath. He knew what he wanted to tell her, but couldn't put the words together. '_C'mon!_' he thought. '_Just tell her!_'

"I'm sorry for the way I've treated you! I don't know what came over me! I just got stunned when you began dating Matt and when I realized what I was doing, it was too late!"

He almost shouted the words at her. Realizing that, he felt his cheeks heat up and took a step backwards.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to shout! Just, please forgive me!"

Saying it, he felt pitiful. For the first time in his life, he felt like he really was the jerk people sometimes claimed he could be. He closed his eyes to try and hide the shame he felt.

"Well, I actually wanted to ask you for forgiveness." Sora sounded almost sad saying it. Tai opened his eyes and saw Sora hanging her head down, her facial expression filled with guilt. What was this all of a sudden?

"Forgive you for what? I'm the one that have been pushing you away, not the other way around!"

"No." Sora's voice was low so only Tai could hear it. "I should have told you sooner. I didn't want you to find out the way you did. I was so worried that you would feel hurt by it that I kept it a secret longer than I should have and when you stopped talk to me, I thought you hated me for not telling you."

Tai was speechless. Had she been caring the same feeling of guilt as he had all this time? Why were girls always so eager to take the blame for something that wasn't their fault?

"It's not your fault. I shouldn't have pushed you aside the way I did either. After all, you're as freer to make your own decisions as I am."

Sora looked up at Tai. She still looked like she felt guilty, but she still managed to give him a sad smile.

"Thanks, I don't deserve it."

"Of course you do! If someone's been acting wrong it's me! Now, let's just forget all this and go back to being friends, ok?"

Sora gave of an uncertain laugh. Tai hadn't changed at all. She nodded certainly as she finally let go of her emotional guilt.

"Right!"

"Eeh, guys? If you're finished small talking, I think I've found something you would like to see!" Izzy's voice came soaring over to them. As they turned to face him, Tai put a hand on Sora's shoulder. She smiled gratefully at him, before the two childhood friends walked over to their fellow digidestined.

* * *

Dan felt the wind blow over the tree he was sitting in, almost blowing him down. He grabbed a branch over his head to prevent himself from losing balance. As the gust had stopped, he let go of the branch and leaned back against the tree. Thousands of thoughts were running through his head. Memories from a past he didn't want to remember.

"Me? A digidestined? I wouldn't even give a digimon an ice cream for all the money in the world!" he said to himself. As he was about to drift away in thoughts again, he heard a rustle from above his head. Turning his gaze upwards, he found himself face to face with a yellow bug digimon that resembled a larva. He recognized it as a Kunemon. He had studied the known history of digimon and tried to learn as much as he could about them in order to find a way to avenge his father's death.

"Hey! That's my spot!" the Kunemon shouted at him.

"Get lost bug-boy! I don't see your name on this branch so just back off!"

The Kunemon landed in front of him and stared (he assumed, as he couldn't see its eyes) angrily at him.

"Are you picking a fight human?"

"So what if I am? Even I could kick the ass off someone your size!"

The insect didn't answer his remark. As Dan stood up, he heard it take a deep breath.  
'_This is it.'_ He thought as he reached out and grabbed a branch that hang over his head.

"**Electro thread**!"

As the electric charged web rushed towards him, Dan broke the branch and managed to put it in front of him just in time, blocking the attack and making the web fall to the ground below. As he saw the Kunemon charge at him, he aimed a swing at it that hit it in its face, causing it to fall down to the branch below.  
As he saw it recover quickly, he swung down to the same branch and charged at it. This time, the digimon was ready for the swing and took the blow with its forehead. Pushing the improvised weapon to the side, Kunemon jumped at him and hit him with a skull bash in his chest, causing him to fall back against the trunk. Still clinging to his chest, Kunemon took a deep breath to spit a new electrified web in his face. Acting instinctively, Dan clenched his fist and hit it from the side. The power in the swing made the insect digimon lose balance and fall of the branch, this time falling all the way down to the ground. Catching his breath, Dan swung down to the lifeless Kunemon. As he came close, he could hear it still breathing.  
He sighed. He maybe hated digimon, but still he couldn't just kill something defenseless. Turning to walk away from his defeated enemy, he heard his sisters voice call out to him in his head.

"Quit acting like such a jerk bro!"

He stopped a few feet away and looked over his shoulder. The Kunemon was still unconscious. Remembering Miyuki's last words to him, he sighed and went back to grab the insect. As climbed with it all the way back to the branch they had been fighting over, he wondered why he was so easily influenced by Miyuki. A few minutes later, he saw the Kunemon wake up again from a safe distance. For some reason, this made him feel warm inside. As he turned his back to the tree and walked away, he wondered what his father would've said, should he have seen him now?

* * *

Kari looked down at the map they had drawn in the sand by the river. Patamon had scouted the area and found that they were in a big forest. He had said that it would probably take at least one day of walk to get out of there. Studying the map, she couldn't help but wonder where Dan was right now. If he had been walking all night, maybe he had already made it out of the forest. She looked up at the others. Ken and Davis hadn't said a word since they woke up. Ken was probably still shocked that Dan had known about him being the Digimon Emperor. She could see Davis still felt humiliated from his fight yesterday. Theo was speaking with T.K about what kinds of Digimon they might meet. Their digimon was still eating breakfast. Miyuki was sitting for herself a little bit away from the others. Kari thought she knew why. She was missing her brother. Kari actually missed her own brother too. Standing up, she made her way over to the younger girl, who looked up at her.

"I'm sure he will be fine. Dan can take care of himself."

Yuki lowered her gaze.

"I know he can. I just wish he would stop living in the past."

Kari sat down at Miyuki's left side. She looked at her, the hint of a tear showing in her face.

"I was actually wondering, have you and Dan made contact with digimon before?"

It was a claim more than a question. It was obvious that at least Dan had bad experiences with digimon from before. Hatred like the one Dan held towards Digimon must have a indeed, Miyuki bowed her head in a nod.

"Yeah. A long time ago when we were still living in Odaiba."

"Wait." Kari interrupted. "You two used to live in Odaiba?"

Miyuki nodded again.

"But we moved away after _that_ incident."

Kari felt the wind blow through her hair. She could the tension hanging in the air around Miyuki.

"What incident?" she asked silently. Could this be the reason why Dan behaved like he did?

"If Dan hasn't told you himself, I don't know if I should either. But since he seems to trust you, I will tell you anyway. I was only two years old when it happened, but Dan has told me afterwards. Back then, Daniel was a happy and cheerful person, caring towards everything and everyone."

Kari leaned back against the rock they were sitting on. She could really see it in front of her. The young Daniel Isashi smiling and laughing.

"One day, we and our mother went to the mall to buy some stuff we needed for Dads birthday. But as we got there, the place was invaded by evil creatures that looked like ghosts. They kept people hostage in the mall. From what I've heard, they were looking for something."

Kari felt her heart shrink. No, it couldn't be. Could it?

"As they seemingly had taken over the whole city, Dad figured that we might be in trouble. And stubborn and caring as he was, he came running to the mall to try and help us. He managed to get in, but as we were about to leave, that digimon arrived. I think Dan said it was called Phantomon. It stopped us from leaving and killed our father… right in front of Dan's eyes."

At the last sentence, Kari covered her mouth with her hands in order to prevent herself from gasping. As she did, she felt the tears that were running down her cheeks. Miyuki didn't cry, but she had an expression of pure sadness covering her face.

"After that, Dan became withdrawn. He didn't talk to anyone and seemed to lose faith in himself. I know he have been blaming himself for not being able to prevent it from happening. Our mother tried to protect us from the sad memories by moving away from Odaiba. But eventually, she was the one unable to forget and began to lose her senses. She's been going in and out from the hospital for five years now. She has become a shell of what she used to be. She no longer recognizes us."

After finishing her story, even Yuki shed a tear. Kari was shocked. She could never have guessed that Dan had gone through such traumatic experiences. No wonder he had a hard time with digimon. As she felt her heart beat at a rapid pace, Miyuki turned to face Kari.

"Please don't tell the others. At least not yet. I told you because Dan trusts you. You're the first person outside our family ha have dared to place trust in for several years, but I don't think the same goes for Davis and the others."

After wiping her tears out of her red eyes, Kari nodded slightly.

"Ok. I won't say a word. But Yuki, what about you? How come you don't hate digimon for what they did to your dad?"

Yuki leaned back against the rock and took a deep breath before answering.

"I don't hate digimon because I don't remember what happened. I have heard from older kids that though evil digimon's were the ones to cause the problems, there were also digimon fighting to save us. Dan knows that, but is too stubborn to accept it. It have affected him harder because he still remembers when dad was killed."

Kari just nodded. She couldn't even imagine how she would feel should her dad have been killed by Digimon. Would she still be as friendly towards the digital creatures then?

"Is it ok if I sit here for a moment or two?"

Miyuki just nodded for an answer as she stood up and walked over to the digimon that had finished their breakfast. After seeing her sit down to talk with Veemon, Kari turned her face forward and looked up at the treetops. So that's why Dan was so withdrawn. For some reason, it felt good to know, even though it was a terrible story just to be told. She felt like she under stood Daniel a little better now. She finally knew the source of Daniel Isashi's hatred.

**So that's it! Kari finally knows why Dan hates digimon and the main character himself is wandering around searching for his sworn enemy. Anyone who can guess who it is? Stay put to find out!**


	7. The two sides of the coin

**Lucky seven is here! Seven's my favorite number because I wear it on my soccer shirt when I play :) I have tried to make this an special chapter because of it and believe me, it is. For starters, it is almost double the length of a normal chapter and it will also contain some really interesting stuff. I welcome any kinds of review as I want people's opinion both on the story and if i really succeded in making this chapter special. **

**Disclaimer: i think it's getting old that I say "i do not own digimon" all the time... so for a change, I've brought someone else to say it for me. Well Dan?**

**Dan: "I do not own digimon. if i did, I would kick their ass!"**

**Author: "No! You're supposed to say that the author doesn't own digimon. We'll take it again!"**

**Dan: "Since when are you the boss of me?"**

**Author: "Since I created you?"**

**Dan: "good point... anyway, do not own any of the stuff from the original digimon series. He only owes me, Yuki and that kid Peo."**

**Author:" His name is Theo..."**

**Dan: "Same shit! I have to go get ready, it's about to start." (runs of to the toilets...)**

**Author:" Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading and give a nice review!" :)**

_Chapter seven_

Dan walked over an open wasteland. He had left the forest about an hour ago and kept walking ever since. The heat was taking its toll on him, he began to feel weak. Why did all deserts have to be hot? His legs felt like jelly. His breathing became heavier. He raised his head to try and find a shelter somewhere. Front: sand. Right: sand. Left: huts.  
'_Wait, huts?'_  
That's his save! If he could only make it to those huts, he might be able to find the shelter he needed. Stumbling towards what looked like a small village; he at last felt his knees give in and collapses. Raising his increasingly blurred vision, he reached out his hand against the village.  
'_S-so close!_'  
As he felt his last energy leave his body, his hand dropped to the ground. With his blurry gaze fixed on the village, he lost consciousness.

* * *

Miyuki snatched. She could have sworn that she had just felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. Staring at her right shoulder where she had felt the touch, she got snapped back to reality by a shout.

"I see the exit of the forest!"

It was Veemon that shouted. Raising her head, Yuki could see the tree's open up about 10 meters up ahead. Davis and Veemon had run off ahead and Patamon was flying not far behind. T.K, Kari, Theo and Gatomon was walking behind Yuki while Ken was walking beside her. That said, it was actually something she had wanted to ask him.

"So Ken, why don't you have a digimon partner?"

Ken smiled slightly at this remark.

"I do have one. But he was already here in the digiworld when we were sucked in. I guess that's why he wasn't transported to the same place as us, because he already was somewhere here."

Ken stopped smiling as he was thinking of his friend.

"I'm actually a bit worried about him. I hope we find him soon."

"Don't worry, we will find Wormmon. Maybe he can tell us what's going on here…"

As Yuki looked around, she saw that Kari had walked up to them while they were talking. She looked at her, who looked back at her.

"Speaking of partners, I'm surprised that you and Theo haven't gotten yours yet." Kari said with a thoughtful smile.

Yuki stopped walking.

"What do you mean "your partners"?"

Kari stopped and looked back at Yuki with a smile on her face.

"Well, of course. You're a digidestined after all!"

Yuki looked down at her digivice that was attached to her belt. She felt warm inside just looking at it. She was going to get her own digimon!  
'_Maybe now, I can protect my family so i won't lose any more of them.'  
_As she stood there, Theo walked past her along with T.K. He seemed to think in the same lines, because he was holding his own dark-red digivice and was speaking excitedly with the older boy, who gave off a strained smile.

"Hey! Are you going to stay in there for the next century? C'mon! You've got to see this!"

Turning forward, Yuki could see Davis waving his hands. Patamon was flying above his head and Veemon seemed just as excited as his partner.

"I wonder what they could've found." Gatomon said and took off in their direction.

Feeling someone put a hand on her shoulder, Yuki looked around again, excepting to see no one just like before, but was this time met by Kari's face.

"Well, shall we?" she said with a smile before steering Yuki towards the sunlight, in which their friends was already engulfed.

* * *

Something was soft. As Dan rolled over, he felt his cheek touch against something that felt like a fur ball. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes slightly. At first, the light blinded him, but he soon got used to it. As he studied his surroundings, he realized that he was in some kind of hut.  
'_So did I made it after all?_' he thought as he remembered the huts he had seen before he collapsed. In a corner of the small room, a bookshelf stood, though it seemed mini-sized to him. Turning his attention to his left, he noticed a bird-like creature standing by a table, seemingly trying to prepare something. It was almost completely white and had a long, elegant neck on which a head resembling a swan rested.  
'_So, that's a Swanmon._' He thought.  
He studied the elegant bird digimon carefully. It didn't seem to want to hurt him. But he still looked around to find the exit, just in case. Not to the left. Then that means…  
As he turned to the right, he found himself staring straight into a pair of big, round, yellow eyes.

"Gaaah! What is that?!" he rolled out of his bed and landed on the floor. As he rubbed his head, the Botamon made its way over to him. He looked down at the small, black cat-like head that looked back at him.

"Oh, so you're finally awake?" he heard a soft voice say behind him. Turning around, he saw that the Swanmon had left the table and was also making her way over to him. In her hands (eh, wings?) she was holding a big cup of something that smelled like roses.

"Where am I?"

"Don't worry, you're in safe hands. This is Primary Village, the place where all digimon comes to get reborn."

Primary Village? He had read about it somewhere in a book. According to what he knew, this place should be overcrowded by baby digimon.  
'_Ah great. He couldn't just wipe out babies, not even digital ones._ _That would be too cruel, even for him.'_

"Here, this should help you feel better. I've cooked tea using some healing herbs." Swanmon handed him the big cup in her hands. Daniel took it, but didn't drink it. Instead, he met the elegant creature's eyes and asked.

"How did I get here? And how long have I been here?"

Swanmon sat down beside him before she answered.

"You've only been here since yesterday. Some of my babies found you lying about 50 meters away from the village. Kind as they were, they ran to get me. This Botamon here have been guarding you ever since."

Dan looked down at the small creature. It stared up at him with glimmering eyes. He just looked away. He hated digimon! Hated them! So why couldn't he just kill them?

"May I ask for your name? I am Swanmon, the guardian of this village and the babies mother."

Dan turned his face to face Swanmon again. She was a digimon, just like _that_ monster! So why did he feel like she was ok?

"I'm Daniel Isashi, but just call me Dan." He said and looked away again.

"Ok Dan. Since you're here in the digiworld I suppose you're a digidestined?"

At the mention of the last word, Dan had his brief shuffle with Davis and T.K replayed in front of his eyes.

"No, I'm not. Don't call me that."

Swanmon nodded slightly, quite similar to how his mother used to do back in the day.

"Fair enough. But then, why are you here?"

The question hit Dan in the face like a slap. Yeah, why was he there? Why had he been dragged into the digital world? What was his role in all of this?

"Young man, what is your dream?"

"To wipe out all digimon." He said it without thinking about it. Realizing he had just told a digimon that he wanted to wipe out all digimon, he quickly raised his free arm, ready to duck from an eventual attack. But nothing happened. After about ten seconds, he couldn't help but lower his arm to look where Swanmon had gone. But she hadn't moved a single bit. She just sat there and looked back at him with (was it possible) a smile covering her face.

"No, it's not. If it would've been, do you think this child would be so attached to you?"

He looked down at the small baby digimon. It was currently trying to climb up into his lap. Looking at it, he felt unsure. How could something like this grow into such murderous monsters?

"But it's just a fresh digimon, a baby! It doesn't understand."

He looked down at the Botamon again. it still couldn't make it up. Looking at it, he remembered how Miyuki used to try and crawl up into their fathers lap when they were small. Back then, he had thought that it was a sign that Miyuki somehow knew that dad was worth trusting. Remembering how cute she had looked while doing it, he slowly stretched out his arm to give it a little push in the back. Finally being able to climb up, the baby digimon settled back and fell asleep. After looking at the peaceful creature for a while, he raised his head to find that Swanmon was smiling at him.

"You see? Babies only acts on their instincts. They don't think or hesitate. And somehow, they are able to sense a person's true intention."

Dan nodded slightly. It was the same with humans. Babies usually knew instinctively who was dad and who was mom. Who is big brother and who is little sister. Somehow, they always knew who was trustworthy.

"But then… why am I here?"

"That, is something you can only find the answer to on your own." Swanmon stood up.

"You should try and drink that tea before it gets cold. It will help you regain your strength. I have to go care for some of the younger digimon, but try and feel at home!"

And with that, she was gone. Dan looked down at the slumbering baby digimon in his lap. It was so innocent. So different from the ones he had met before. After that incident with Phantomon, he had convinced himself that all digimon were savage beasts and looked at digimon with that mindset. Now he wasn't sure. Maybe the digimons he had met after that incident had just become what he made them in his own eyes. Maybe all of them weren't bad. Could it be that Miyuki had been right when she had tried to tell him that not all digimon were evil? He didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything anymore…

* * *

"What's that?"

Tai was leaning over Izzy's shoulder to get a better look at the computer screen. After yesterday's search for hints at the beach, they had decided to allow Izzy to work in silence, thus leaving him alone for the computer work. Today, they were meeting at Izzy's place. Sora was sitting at the table a little bit to Tai's left. Agumon and Tentomon was playing some card game at the floor in one of the corners while Biyomon was checking the flowers in the window.

"This is a map over the digital world."

Tai frowned at this.

"Then, why is it almost all black?"

Izzy turned back to the computer and began tapping the buttons.

"Wait, I will try and sharpen the quality."

After a minute of constant tapping, Tai began to see lines sharpen out of the black and white areas on the screen. As Izzy leaned back after his work, the screen really resembled a map.

"Now that's more like it. But it still doesn't explain why some parts are white and the rest are black."

Leaning forward again, Izzy pointed at a ripple like patterned symbol in the left top corner.

"I've been able to trace the darkness back to this. From what I can see, it's a portal from another world. But what worries me is that it's not from our world either."

Tai frowned.

"Then, from where is it?"

Izzy shook his head irritated.

"That's the problem! I can't trace it! Look!"

Izzy turned to his left computer (seriously, where did he get the money to buy these things?) and put up a blank screen.

"If this red line here is our world and this blue line here is the digiworld…" he drew two lines in said colors. "…then this black one is world X."

"Izzy, English please."

But before Izzy could answer, another voice was heard from behind Tai.

"The term X usually refers to something variable or unknown."

Turning around, Tai discovered Sora had stood up and walked over to them. She had been leaning over his right shoulder to check out Izzy's explanation. But as she mentioned unknown, something awoke in Tai's memory. He remembered Kari telling him about an unknown world where everything that should be light was dark. Looking down at the map again, he began to put the pieces together.

"The dark ocean…" he said.

The other two turned to look at him with puzzled faces.

"What?"

"That portal leads to the dark ocean. That's why the map is black. The two worlds are overlapping!"

Izzy stared up at his friend. He had been told about this place by Ken. That was where the younger digidestined had imprisoned Daemon. He began to understand what was going on now! Then if the dark parts of the map was where the dark ocean had spread its influence, then it wouldn't be long before the entire digiworld was swallowed by its darkness! As he looked up at his fellow digidestineds, he could see that they were thinking the same. Biyomon had left the flowers and even Agumon and Tentomon had come over to look at the screen.

"This is bad, if Davis and the others have been sucked into the digiworld now, then that means that it really is in trouble! Tai, do you know which others were with them?"

"I think it was only Kari, T.K, Davis and Ken."

Izzy frowned. It sounded kinda strange that only four of the digidestined had been summoned to deal with this crisis. This might even be their greatest challenge this far!

"We've got to go help them!"

It was Sora that shouted. But Izzy shook his head.

"Unfortunately we can't. The portal closed yesterday when I was analyzing its exact location in the digiworld and we can't open another without the D3s."

Sora bit her lip. She felt so helpless. She looked at Tai, almost begging for him to find a solution.

"Then we have to call Cody, or Yolei. They should still be in the real world. If they can make it here, we could assemble the old gang and open a portal to go after Kari and the others."

Sora felt her heart ease up a little bit. She looked at Izzy who nodded slightly.

"Well, it's worth a try. I can get Mimi in America. And since she's currently spending her time with Yolei, I think I can get both of them."

For some reason, Tai grinned at this. Sora frowned at his behavior, but his next sentence cleared it up for her.

"So, you two do have a little thing after all!" he teased Izzy, who blushed slightly at this and turned his face away.

"I-it's not like that!"

Tai laughed at his friend's behavior and gave him a pound in the back.

"Well, if we should stay on that line, I can get Cody and Joe in Tokyo. That leaves Sora with Matt. Is that ok with everyone?"

The still red-cheeked Izzy nodded while still looking away. Tempted to keep teasing his friend about Mimi, Tai decided that he had had his fun and turned to Sora.

"That's ok with you Sora?"

Sora snatched from her thoughts and nodded to her friend. But as they left Izzy's house that afternoon, she was back in her thoughts about her boyfriend.

"Matt… will you answer my call this time?" she said as a tear ran down her cheek when she entered her home.

* * *

Theo's eyes widened as he looked up at the gigantic building in front of them. After leaving the forest, they had been able to spot something on the other side of a wasteland, but he had never imagined that it was something this big. It was a castle made of sand. It actually reminded him of the ones he used to build back home in New York's park.

/ Flashback/

"_Big brother!"_

"_Yeah, what is it?"_

"_Look at this!"_

_The five year old Theodore Newton ran up to his older brother. Grabbing the older boy's sleeve, he tried to pull his brother with him towards the sandy part of the park. His brother smiled slightly in amusement. As they reached their destination, Theo pointed excitedly at what looked like a compliment to the leaning tower in Pisa._

"_Look! Look!"_

_His brother leaned over his masterpiece and studied it. Theo couldn't hold still. He was almost shaking with excitement while waiting for his brother's judgment._

"_Did you build this brother?"_

_Theo could barely hide his excitement._

"_Yes I did! Don't you think it's-"_

"_This is one big piece of shit!" his brother said and gave it a little push, causing it to crumble and fall to the ground._

_Theo felt like his heart had cracked along with his masterpiece. He tried to hold back the tears as his older brother walked over to him and looked down at him._

"_I mean, wouldn't be much more fun to build an even bigger castle that won't be destroyed by touching it?"_

_Theo looked down._

"_But Zane, you know I can't build something like that."_

_As he said it, he felt Zane place his hand on his head. Raising his head, Theo was met by his brother's face, covered with a big smile._

"_Don't worry, little one. I'll help you!"_

_Hearing that, Theo felt his heart repair itself. The tears that had been trying to get out of his eyes disappeared in a split second. _

"_Really?"_

_His brother nodded and led his younger sibling back to the sand._

"_First, you will have to learn how to compress the sand better so it won't lose its form when someone touches it."_

_/ one hour later/_

_Theo looked up at his new masterpiece. It was slightly taller than him. Not that he was very tall, but still. He put one finger on it and pushed carefully. It didn't move. He looked up at his older brother with wonder in his eyes. Zane gave him a slight smile back. _

"_Wow big bro! I never knew you were this good at building sand castles!"_

"_Well, I used to build these things when I was your age too, you know."_

_Theo frowned._

"_But you're just two years older than me!"_

"_Well, many things can happen on two years." Zane shrugged._

_People were starting to leave the park, as the sun was about to set and most of them probably wanted to get dinner. As Theo wondered where their parents could have disappeared to, someone shouted their names._

"_Theodore! Zane! We're about to leave!"_

_Theo felt his heart beat faster as he saw mom and dad walking up to them. He ran to meet them and grabbed his father's arm first things and tried to drag him towards the sand castle._

"_Look daddy look! Big brother helped me build a castle! Look!"_

_Theo awaited his father's judgment, but instead Percival Newton turned to his oldest son._

"_Not bad, I didn't knew even you could build something this big."_

_Theo felt like someone had slapped him in the face. He lowered his head as his father placed his hand on Zane's shoulder. _

"_Actually, Theo was the one who built it; I just told him how to do it."_

_Theo looked up at his brother who stared at their father with an angry face. However, Percival smiled an, in Theo's opinion, unpleasant smile at Zane._

"_But Zane, we both know that he's not like you. He wouldn't be able to do this."_

_Theo felt like he sank through the sand. As always, Zane got all the credit for something they had done together. As he felt the tears run down his cheeks, he turned and ran away. No one even noticed he was gone._

_/ _End of Flashback/

In the present, Theo still looked up at the gigantic stronghold. He felt the winds blow as if to tell him something had changed. Something in the air was different. Lowering his gaze, he saw the others trying to find a way to get inside the castle. Looking up at it again, he felt his heart tremble. He raised his hand and touched it. It felt just like back then, but the sand was much harder compressed. Suddenly, he felt a cold breeze and saw a shadow move over the wall.

"Theo! Get down!"

Reacting instinctively, Theo threw himself to the ground. He felt how something big and scorching missed him by a whisker. Rolling around, he spotted something in the sky, flying towards him.

"Run Theo! Get out of there!" he heard T.K shouting from a distance. But he couldn't move. He felt his whole body tremble with fear as a the flying creature got closer. It resembled an ancient flying dinosaur that Theo had seen in a book his brother showed him when he was younger. As Pteramon was about to strike, Theo's digivice gave of a high Beeeep! Theo closed his eyes to try and hide from the incoming enemy. He could barely breathe. In a matter of second, he would be bird-food. Then out of nowhere, a beastly roar could be heard, followed by the sound of metal clashing with metal. When the expected pain never came, Theo dared to open his eyes. In front of him stood what looked like a lion with a humanoid build. It wore a pair of worn black pants and in its hand; it held a sword that it used to block the beak of the Pteramon.

"Theo!"

As Miyuki reached him, Theo finally found the strength to stand up. The others caught up not too long after. As T.K looked up at the majestic beast digimon that was protecting Theo, he recognized an old friend he hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Leomon? Is that you?!"

When Leomon turned his head and looked down at T.K, he couldn't help but smile.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it T.K? But this is no time for chit-chat, we'll catch up later. Right now, you and the others have to get out of here!"

As T.K nodded towards Leomon, Kari put a hand on each of Yuki and Theo's shoulders.

"Let's go!" she said.

"Patamon. Digivolve!"

digivice gave of a blending light, but suddenly it vanished. Patamon looked shocked.

"What? Why doesn't it work?"

"I'll explain everything later! Just go!" Leomon shouted as he pushed away the Pteramon.

As T.K, Kari, Miyuki, Ken and Theo began to run along with their digimon, Davis and Veemon stayed behind.

"You guys go on ahead! I'll stay behind and help out… whoever this is!"

Leomon looked down at him.

"You can't do anything without digivolving. Save yourself!"

"If digivolving doesn't work, then we will just have to go with another trick, right Veemon?"

The blue digimon nodded. As Pteramon dived at them once more, Davis pulled out his D-terminal.

"**Digi-armor-energize**!"

"**Veemon armor digivolve tooooo… Flamedramon! The fire of courage!"**

As Leomon looked down at the armor digimon, he couldn't help but feel his mood rise. Maybe they could pull through this after all. '_Armor Digivolution'_ he thought. '_Looks like Gennai was right once again!'_

__**So there we have it! Things are starting to heat up! Dan is finally starting to question his ways of revenge and the older digidestined are taking action! Next time, we will learn more of what have happened in the digital world and why Gennai haven't warned the DDs himself. Hope you enjoyed it! R&R! **


	8. The truth

__**As some of you may have noticed, it will take some more time for me to update since my damn school have started. But I will try to update at least once a week. Here comes chapter 8 anyway! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Chapter eight_

"Mr. Human? Why do you help Swanmon take care of us if you really hate digimon?"

"For the last time Punimon, my name is Dan. And I'm only doing this as a means to pay back my debt."

Dan was sitting on the ground with a sauce pan in his lap, feeding some of the baby digimon in Primary Village. It felt kind of weird since he had spent his entire life striving to annihilate all digimon, but he owed Swanmon his life after all. Having been saved by Swanmon, not to mention being given a digivice, Dan had begun to feel unsure off when ether he really wanted to annihilate all digimon. For some reason, he felt protective over the little ones. Sure, some of them might grow up to become twisted like Phantomon, but at the same time some of them would grow up to become kind and caring like Swanmon.

"So you're going to leave when you've recovered?" Punimon said with a sad face. Dan looked down at the small, red creature before answering.

"I don't belong here. Even if I were to leave my path of trying to erase digimon, I would still not be a part of this place."

The baby digimons that was sitting around him seemed disappointed.

"Aww, but you're so funny!"

Dan snatched at the comment and spilled a drop of hot soup in his lap. Swearing over this, the baby digimon laughed.

"I'm not funny!"

"Now now, where's your manners Dan?"

Swanmon had come over to them when Dan was talking with the Punimon. Some of the younger babies immediately ran to their "mothers" side, to which Swanmon reacted with a big hug. Dan turned away from the scene and spotted a light-blue ball that slowly jumped away from the village. He knew what it was. It was living a lonely Pagumon in this village. According to Swanmon, it had digivolved just some days before Dan himself had arrived. But despite digivolving to its in-training stage, it refused to leave the village and search out its own species, despite being told that a Pagumon village was just on the other side of the forest that lied at the edge of Primary Village. Dan had asked it himself for a reason, but it had only answered: "I'm not like the others. I don't belong with anyone.". What was it that made it so special?

* * *

A screeching sound could be heard as Pteramon dived at its targets once again. it had been doing the same maneuvers for almost half an hour now. Davis didn't even feel pumped for fighting anymore. The others were probably safe by now, they should go after them. Leomon seemed to think in the same ways.

"Let's end this and go back to the others!" Davis said, to which the beast digimon nodded.

"**Missile storm!**" As the Pteramon dived, it unleashed a barrage of missiles from underneath its wings that shot down at the other two digimon. Not going to be outmatched by this, Flamedramon ignited his fist while Leomon did the same.

"**Fire Rocket!**" the missiles were countered by a barrage of rocket-like fire attacks that was sent out of Flamedramons fist, causing them to detonate while still in the air. When Pteramon became visible through the smoke, Leomon swung his ignited fist.

"**Fist of the Beast King!**"

A big fireball that resembled a lion's face shot out of Leomons fist and hit the Pteramon head on. Crying out of the sudden pain, Pteramon fell to the ground and disintegrated into data that then reformed into a digiegg. As Flamedramon de-digivolved back to Veemon, the digiegg disappeared. It had been transported to the closest Primary Village where it should be reborn.

"What just happened?" Davis wasn't familiar with this effect after a battle. In all the battles he had participated, the digimon had either escaped alive or been destroyed.

"When a digimon is destroyed in battle, it reverts into a digiegg to become reborn. However, the victorious digimon might also decide to absorb their data in order to strengthen their own data mass, which in turn prevents the defeated digimon to be reborn."

Leomon shook his head. He didn't want to think about it. He remembered all too well his own demise at the hands of MetalEtemon. As Primary Village had been destroyed at that point, there had been nowhere for him to go. His spirit had been wandering the digital world without a home. At last, he had stumbled across Gennai who had taken him in for the time being. When Primary Village finally was restored and he had been reborn, he had searched out his savior to repay his dept. Ever since, he had been acting as Gennai right hand man. That was why he was here.

"You must be Davis. I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Leomon. In the past, I aided the digidestined during their fight against the dark masters. I am your friend."

Davis looked up at the tall digimon. Yeah, he had heard T.K mention someone by the name Leomon once.

"Pleasure to meet you, but how do you knows my name?"

Leomon shook his head and began to walk in the direction the others had escaped.

"I'll explain everything once we reunite with the others. Let's go!"

Veemon looked up asking at Davis who just shrugged and began to follow Leomon over the wasteland, back towards the forest in which the others probably hid now. They walked in silence and only the winds that blew over the wasteland could be heard. As they were about to reach the edge of the forest, Davis spotted T.K and Patamon stand hidden under a tree.

"Hey! T.K you can come out of hiding!"

T.K stepped out of the shadows and showed himself.

"About time you two showed up. We've been worried."

"Hey, you know us! We would never let something like that one beat us!" Davis gave of his trademark grin. But T.K looked straight through him at Leomon, who was studying them from behind Davis and Veemon.

"Care to explain what's going on now Leomon?" T.K sounded worried, as if he didn't believe Leomon to be able to answer their questions.

"I'll explain everything that's happened here once we are all assembled. Where are the others?"

"They went deeper into the forest. I stayed behind in order to point you in the right direction."

T.K nodded in a direction a little left to where Davis had thought it would be and then began to walk down a small path that led deeper into the forest. Davis followed with Veemon close behind and Leomon followed the two boys. After having walked for around 10 minutes, they arrived in a small glade, in which the remaining four digidestined waited. Ken was speaking with Miyuki, who gave Theo a worried glance. The boy sat with his head in his hands and shook like a leaf. Kari petted him on his arm in an attempt to comfort him. Gatomon was sleeping behind Kari's back. Apparently, she was really bored by the situation. As the remaining members of their group entered the glade, everyone looked up. Kari stopped petting Theo and even the scared boy looked up. Miyuki and Ken stopped their conversation as Leomon sat down under a tree. Everyone moved to form a half circle around him, as if they had been given an order. When everyone was in place, T.K spoke up.

"Now tell us, what have happened to the digital world?"

"Before we go into that, there's something I must tell you. Gennai have been imprisoned and I'm here to pass on his words."

Everyone nodded. They had felt something was wrong when Gennai hadn't warned them about this.

"About a month ago, portals began to open all around the digiworld. No one knew from where they came, but it must have been a world similar to the digiworld, because out of them came evil or corrupted digimon. They began to wreak havoc and spread a dark aura wherever they went. This aura seemingly began to infect the digimon in this world as well. Many of the infected digimon joined these corrupt ones. They have by now conquered most of the digital world and began to set up strongholds, like the one you just saw."

Leomon made a pause and allowed the digidestined to let this sink in. they were all stunned by what he just had said. Even Gatomon had opened one of her eyes to look at him when he talked. Theo seemed to be the one most shocked.

"How can someone do something like that? It's horrible!"

"Yeah, Theo's right. Why haven't the sovereigns put a stop to this?"

Leomon shook his head.

"Who said they didn't try? All four of the digimon sovereigns set out to stop this new enemy but they didn't stand a chance. They've been imprisoned in four different strongholds. If you add Gennai, then there's five and…" he looked at Ken. "Your partner Wormmon has also been imprisoned in one of the strongholds. As expected from a partner of the digidestined, he refused to give in to the dark aura when it affected him."

Everyone froze and looked at Ken. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Davis could see the panic grow in his eyes. He understood how his friend felt. He had felt the same feeling of uselessness during a confrontation with Ken himself when he was still the Digimon Emperor. Back then, Ken had just developed the Dark Spirals to be able to control Ultimate level digimon and used one to gain control of Tai's Agumon. At first, Davis had refused to fight against his friend. But as he realized that being friendly at that time for Agumon meant for his friends to stop and kill him rather than allow him to remain in the control of evil, Flamedramon had de-generated back to Veemon. At that moment, he had felt like he was about to explode. As he saw Veemon being attack by MetalGreymon with no possibility of defending himself, he felt so ashamed for not being able to help his friend that he almost thought he was going to be cut in two. Ken probably felt the same way now for not being able to help his partner. Despite this he didn't say a word. He just lowered his head and stared at the ground, lost in thoughts. But as no one said anything, Kari spoke up.

"By the way Leomon, is there any reason that these new digidestined haven't been given a partner at their initial arrival here in the digiworld like we did?"

Leomon sighed.

"It's a long story, but if you just sit down and don't disturb me, I will tell you."

Everyone except Ken nodded in agreement. Leomon took a deep breath before he began his story.

/ Flashback/

_Leomon looked down at the scattered pieces of data that was floating in the air around Gennai. It all looked like something that you would find at your backdoor. _

"_Why did you have me bring all this stuff to you? There is a reason other digimon threw it at a dumpster."_

_The meditating man in front of him opened his eyes and smiled at his friend. _

"_Nothing is useless, my friend. Look at this data. It may not be very useful like this." He closed his eyes again and the scrap began to be put together and in a blinding light, three strange devices of similar design was hanging in the air in front of Leomon. "But if you just re-write it, it can become something wonderful." _

_Leomon stared in wonder at the three devices that hang in the air. They seemed familiar somehow and he could somehow feel connected to them._

"_Are those digivices?"_

_Gennai nodded slightly. _

"_Yes. Azulongmon sent me blueprints for a new set."_

_Leomon looked up at his friend with a surprised look on his face._

"_Azulongmon? I thought he had been captured already?"_

_Gennai nodded sadly. The look on his friends face made Leomon regret having mentioned anything about the Holy Dragon Digimon. He knew that the two had been close, not only as allies but also as friends. _

"_Azulongmon gave up willingly. He knew that as a sovereign, his power was limited to the people that believed in him. Instead, he chose to gamble on people he knew could surpass those limit."_

_Leomon was speechless._

"_You don't mean the digidestined, right?"_

_Gennai nodded._

"_But we can't involve them! They're just kids! And I don't see you collect any partners for the new ones? How are they supposed to help us if they don't even have partners to synchronize with their digivices?"_

_But surprisingly, Gennai smiled at Leomons comment._

"_There are more ways to get a partner than getting one from me. If they don't have any partners, they will have to find their own ones. However…" Gennai looked over at his friend._

_It made him feel uneasy._

"_However… what?"_

"_However, I was hoping that you would honor them with your presence and synchronize with one of the digivices?"_

_This made Leomon make a funny face. What was he talking about?_

"_You don't mean… that you want to make ME the partner of one of the kids?"_

_But to his dismay, his friend nodded at him._

"_Yes, I know you're not the kind of person to co-operate with someone without a reason, but the fact is that you would be a wise choice since you already have proven to be able to synchronize with the digidestineds power."_

_Leomon just shook his head. No, this was just not right! _

"_What do you mean "synchronize with the digidestineds power?"_

"_You remember when you gained the ability to digivolve after having been exposed to the digdestineds digivices? Haven't you ever been wondering why only you of all the digimon they saved with their digivices got the power to digivolve?"_

_Leomon opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. Gennai was right. Out of all digimon that had been exposed to the digivices power, only he had absorbed it and gained the power to digivolve. He lowered his head in agreement._

_/ 10 minutes later/_

_Leomon was looking out at Gennai as he plugged in one of the three digivices into the glass tube Leomon stood in. As he did it, he felt the ground shake around them. _

"_They are here!" Gennai said as he pushed the button to start the synchronizing. He turned away and began walking towards the door. Leomon didn't say anything. He knew it would come to this sooner or later. But still, he hated himself for not being able to do anything about it. _

_As he looked up, he saw that his friend had stopped by the door and turned around. _

"_When the synch is finished, you take the digivices and get out of here! I'm going to stall them for time."_

_And with that, he was gone. Leomon came to wait ten more minutes. Ten painful, outdrawn minutes. As he finally was let out of his cage, he grabbed the digivices and went to the door opposite to the one Gennai had exited through. With one final glance in the direction where he had last seen his savior and friend, he sighed and pushed the self-destruction button on the wall (hey! For once these things are put to good use!)._

_/_ End of Flashback/

As Leomon ended his story, the digidestined sat like six big "?". Even Ken had lifted his head in shock. They sat in silence, thinking about what they had just heard. After a little while, Davis came to think of something and spoke up.

"So, whose partner are you?"

Leomon sighed and looked out over the group.

"That's something that only you hold the answer to. Which one of you has the dark-red digivice?"

Slowly, Theo stretched up his hand. Leomon nodded at him.

"Then from now on, I will fight alongside you, Theodore."

Kari turned around and smiled at the younger boy. Everyone seemed happy that Theo had gotten his partner revealed. Well, Miyuki seemed a little bit disappointed, but she still smiled at her friend. But to everyone's surprise, Theo lowered his head.

"Why did you pick me of all people? I know I'm not good enough for this!"

"What?!" Davis didn't believe his ears.

"Why didn't you pick my brother instead? He can do all I can but like ten times better!"

Kari didn't understand where all this was coming from. He had seemed so happy to talk about this back when he and T.K had discussed which partner he would get.

"Geez dude, you were chosen because you are you! We are all glad that you were chosen in place of your brother." T.K tried to cheer him up and Kari nodded in agreement. But Theo just shook his head.

"You're only saying that because you don't know him!"

Theo seemed to be on the verge of tears and when Kari tried to crawl up to him, he just moved away. Then, out of nowhere, Davis appeared behind him and grabbed his arm.

"What's wrong dude? We don't care who your brother are, we all believe in you! We believe you can pull this off! That's why you were chosen!"

As he looked up at Davis with a face wet by tears that was now flowing steadily down his cheeks, he broke away from the older boy and took off into the forest without a word. Davis tried to go after him but Leomon, who had been spectating the whole thing, grabbed his arm and shook his head.

"It's useless. Let him be for himself for a while. Right now, it doesn't matter if we or anyone else believe he's the right choice for this. He must believe it himself, otherwise it's no use."

Davis looked like he was going to protest, but after receiving a piercing look from Ken, he decided not to. He knew Ken used to have similar problems with his own brother when he was younger. Maybe he knew how to handle this.

"Don't worry. I don't think Theo is as reckless as Dan. He will come back. Let's instead check out the new digivices and try to figure out how they work." Miyuki said, holding her own light-blue digivice in her hand and looking on it from different angles.

"That sounds like a good idea. Could you hand me Dan's digivice Davis?" T.K said.

"What? I thought you took it?"

As the two boys went on about who had Dan's digivice, Kari felt cold inside. That's right! Dan was still out there! If the digital world was at this much chaos, would he really be ok? She picked up her cell phone and tried to activate it. It didn't have any connection, but it lit up and she was greeted by two people smiling at her. As she looked at the picture, she remembered how hard she had worked to get Dan to come with her to that restaurant. While there, he had actually acted almost normal, even smiling at her and allowing her to take this picture. It was the only occasion since she got to know him that he had allowed her to do that. As she pulled the phone with the picture close to her heart, she thought '_Dan, please be safe!'_, not knowing that in that exact same second, Dan was looking at his own cell phone pictures of her and thought the exact same thing!

* * *

**Whoa! I think someones a little in love! Anyway, I've already decided what will happen in the next chapter, so keep your eyes open for Chapter 9: "The tale of BlackWarGreymon"!**


	9. The Tale of BlackWarGreymon

_Chapter nine_

Tai felt the air flow through his hair while he was walking down the park. He had been able to reach Joe earlier that morning and according to him, Cody didn't live far away from his own place so he would contact the younger boy. Feeling relieved, Tai was currently on his way to Izzys house to talk to him about what they should do once they were all gathered. But as he walked there, he saw someone he recognized. On a park bench, one of the most beautiful girls he knew of sat with her head hanging down. Her light-brown hair was surprisingly unkept and she seemed troubled by something. Tai walked up to her, but she didn't notice him. It was like she was somewhere else.

"Sora?"

His childhood friend and late love-interest snatched and raised her head. At first, it looked like she didn't recognize him but then her face lit up with a smile.

"Oh, Tai! I didn't notice you! So how are you doing? I'm fine!"

Tai sighed and shook his head. Despite her efforts, her smile was stiff and she couldn't have been more obvious.

"Quit the act. What's wrong Sora?"

Realizing that her friend wouldn't be fooled, Sora lowered her head in sorrow. As Tai looked down at her, he was shocked to see that tears had begun to run down her cheeks. He sat down at her side and put an comforting arm around her. After some second to catch her breath, Sora spoke up with a weak voice.

"It's Matt… he w-won't answer my call."

"What?" Tai felt stunned. He had spoken to Matt himself just last week. So why wouldn't Matt talk with his girlfriend?

"I don't know why. But three weeks ago, he just stopped answering my calls."

Tai petted Sora on her arm in a weak try to comfort her. Something was wrong. He had spoken to Matt several times during the last three weeks and he had never mentioned a crack between him and Sora. As he tried to figure out a reason for Matt to just ignore his girlfriend, Sora leaned in against his chest to try and comfort herself. Tai felt his heart beat faster and his cheeks heating up. He felt urges to hug her back, to hold her closer to him but still found himself unable to do it.

"I'll talk to Matt about it and try and figure out what's going on in his mind. Ok?"

After calming her sobbing, Sora nodded.

"Thanks." She said and leaned back onto his shoulder.

Daniel was sitting on a cliff, a little bit away from Primary Village. He had taken a little time out from the baby sitting to get some room to breathe. From up here, the digital world really looked beautiful. That however, made him even more confused. He had spent the latest 7 years of his life aiming to destroy all digimon, yet since he had come here had found himself unable to kill even one of them, despite being given the opportunity. As he looked down at the picture of his family in the golden locket, he wondered if killing digimon really was his purpose in life. He remembered Kari's expression when he threw away his digivice. Maybe he should have tried to have kept his calm. The shocked face she had given him bugged him. He didn't like seeing Kari feel bad and felt terrible for having been the source of it this time. Why did he care so much for her anyway? She was a digidestined! Allied with the creatures that took away his father! But then again, she had always been so sweet and nice to him while he had been… a jerk.  
Sighing for himself, he lowered his head and locked eyes with the Yuki at his picture. She was still and infant back when this photo was taken. The soft expression of pure peace at her face made Dan think of the babies he currently was in charge of. As he raised his head, he looked out over Primary Village. From up here, it was really beautiful. But as he closed his locket and stood up, something down in the village caught his eye. A small, white shape had appeared in the exit that pointed in his direction. At first, he thought that it was just one of the babies, curious to see what was outside, but then he recognized it as the lonely Pagumon. The digimon headed towards the small forest beneath the rock he was sitting on. Curious to see what it had in mind, Dan put the locket back beneath his shirt and slipped down the side of the big stone structure. He landed behind a tree just as the small white creature passed on a narrow path on the other side. Sticking his head out to spot the Pagumon, he followed it but made sure not to get caught.

After having walked for several minutes, the Pagumon stopped in front of a big tree. Dan stopped and hid behind a tree about five meters away from the young digimon. While he waited for the Pagumon to move, he noticed something inscribed on the tree. He looked from Pagumon to the inscription on the tree and then back again. There was no doubt that he was focused on the inscription. Dan's eyes narrowed to try and see what it said, but he was too far away. He looked around and saw a good hiding spot just behind Pagumon. Slowly, he tripped up to the rock he had his eyes on and dived behind it. Pagumon didn't seem to notice. Now he could clearly see what was written at the tree:

_I wish for this peaceful place to be the resting place for all the digimon I have ever caused pain. I also wish for this place to be a place for apologies, where all digimon that like me regret their actions can gather and be forgiven. And finally, I wish for this place to be a place of friendship, in honor of my friends the digidestined: Tai, Agumon, Davis, Veemon, Yolei, Hawkmon, Cody, Armadillomon, T.K, Patamon, Kari and Gatomon._

_/ BlackWarGreymon_

Dan took a step back. BlackWarGreymon… he had read that name somewhere in a book he had found about the digimons history. If he remembered right, BlackWarGreymon was an artificial digimon created to destroy the digidestined. But he had turned on his creators and ended up sacrificing his life to seal a gate from the digiworld to the real world. But wait, if that was true, then how come BlackWarGreymon had time to write that on the tree? If he sacrificed his life, then he shouldn't have been able to write that since he would be dead. Which would mean that he, like any other digimon, had been reborn in Primary Village. As he wondered what had become of him, his gaze once again fell to Pagumon. His eyes widened as he remembered something. Pagumon was an in-training digimon that could digivolve into many different rookie-forms, one of which was… BlackAgumon!  
He felt a cold breeze ride through his hair as he realized who the Pagumon in front of him actually was. He finally knew why Pagumon felt he didn't belong with the other digimon.

As Pagumon looked up at the names engraved in the bark, he felt lonely. Why had he been reborn? He had been an artificial being, he was not a digimon. So why would he be reborn, just like any ordinary digimon? What was his purpose in life? It had seemed so obvious when he sealed the gate that that had been his destiny, but now he felt unsure. If that had been his purpose, then why hadn't his life ended when he had accomplished that deed?

"So that's why you think you don't belong with the others?"

The voice made Pagumon jump high into the air. He turned around and allowed his gaze to flow over the place he thought he had heard the voice. At first, he couldn't spot anything unusual, but then someone rose from behind a big rock. As their eyes met, he recognized the human that had come to the Primary Village. As Dan made his way over to him, Pagumon's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean?"

Dan grinned at him.

"Well, you don't think you belong with the other digimon because you think you're not a digimon yourself. You're an artificial being, isn't that right BlackWarGreymon?"

Pagumon felt like someone had hit him in the face. How could this human know who he was when none of the digimon he had met had been able to figure it out? His eyes narrowed as he glared back at the human who stared at him with an intensive look.

"Well, aren't we the smart one? How did you find out?"

As Dan sat down beside him, Pagumon followed his every move as if he expected him to attack him at any occasion given. But to his surprise, Dan gave him a reassuring smile when he had sat down.

"Aside from your pretty weird behavior, the inscription on that tree. And also, BlackAgumon is BlackWarGreymon's rookie form and also the evolution of Pagumon."

Pagumon lowered his head (well, he didn't have much more than that). If this human knew his true identity, it wasn't long before the others got to know either.

"I think you're a complete idiot."

The white digimon bit his tongue when he the words hit him. He glared up at the human and licked his lip, that now had a small tint of blood in it. After having tasted the taste of iron for a moment, he took a jump forward.

"What do you mean "complete idiot"?"

Dan sat down in front of him and poked him on the forehead.

"In my eyes, you're as much a digimon as all the others. If I destroyed you, I would feel just as satisfied as if I had destroyed any of the others."

Pagumon glared at him. He had heard that this guy wanted to annihilate all digimon, but Pagumon had a hard time believing that he would. He was way to kind towards the other babies to be as cold-hearted as he wanted to be.

"Gee, thanks I guess. But I don't think you would feel satisfied by destroying the digimon anyway, so I don't really mind."

Dan snatched and bit his lip. Now it was his turn to glare angrily at the other one.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it. If you truly had wanted to destroy all digimon, then you would have crushed Primary Village first thing you did after waking up. Taking out the place where all digimon gets reborn would be crucial if you wanted to destroy digital kind and you've been in the position to do it for two days now."

As Dan came to the realization that he was right, he felt the wind blow through his hair. What a coincidence, he had always thought that all that stuff about "the winds of change" were just something they used in cartoons.

"But then, why am I here?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question."

Dan fell to his back. He already knew the answer? He closed his eyes and remembered the black and dark-blue device T.K had handed him. He sighed as he finally saw the truth.

"I'm a digidestined." The words felt bad in his mouth. Just saying it made him feel sick.

"I used to be like you once too. Not knowing who I was and constantly searching for a purpose. What I came up with was nothing I'm proud of today. I dedicated my life to be the strongest, to try and destroy the digital world that made me suffer. But after a destined meeting, my friends put me on the right path. They gave me a purpose worth fighting for. Therefore, I owe them everything. Those friends, were the digidestined. If you just stick to them, I believe you too will find a purpose worth fighting for."

As Pagumon's speech slowly sank into Dan's head, he felt his entire body relax and become completely lax. The biting sensation in his stomach was slowly disappearing. After he had calmed his heart that was beating surprisingly fast, he remembered something Pagumon had done that didn't fit into this story.

"But wait, if you know you're purpose in life, then why do you shy yourself from everyone now?"

Pagumon took a shamed step/jump back and lowered his head.

"Well, the destiny that I desired was to die a heroes death. I did, but then I was reborn, taking the glory from the sacrifice I made. I thought I wasn't going to be reborn since I'm not a digimon. Does that mean that my purpose wasn't to die a heroes death?"

"Maybe you have yet to fulfill your purpose? Maybe you purpose wasn't to die like a hero, but to live like a hero?"

Pagumon looked up at the human. He felt confused by all this talking about "purpose" and "destiny". Why would this human try and help him. An without him knowing it, Dan wondered the exact same thing.

"But how could I live as a hero after having dedicated my life to be a harbinger of destruction?"

Dan frowned and gave off a curious look. He looked up at the tree tops, as if he thought he could find the answer there. He only found out that it wasn't smart for squirrels to eat while running over a branch, since they might slip.

"My father always used to tell me that the greater the problem, the greater the solution. Now that I think about it, I'm sure we will figure something out, both for you and me. But meanwhile, why don't we head back to the village? I think they wonder where we have gone."

Hearing this, Pagumon somehow felt relieved. The greater the problem, the greater the solution… yeah, that made sense. He nodded and began to make his way towards the small path that led back to Primary Village when he suddenly felt someone lift him from the ground.

"I think we will get there faster this way." Said Dan and began to walk down the path. Though Pagumon didn't like being carried by a human, he kept quiet for reasons he wasn't sure about himself. But as the pair made their way through the forest, unbeknownst to them, a black and dark-blue digivice, at the bottom of a river in a forest far away from there, began to glow with a harmonious light.


	10. The Avengers new path

**So... i guess i had more stuff to tend to than i originally thought. Anyway, heres chapter 10. I will now start to focus the updates on the story with most response so try and review if you want this to keep updating!**_  
_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon!**

* * *

_Chapter ten_

Ken felt his heart beat hard in his chest. He was lying hidden beneath a bunch of big leafs by the edge of the forest. On the other side of the wasteland, he could see the stronghold that held his partner prisoner. Biting his lip and clenching his fist in frustration, he picked up his digivice and looked at it. Back when he had first met Wormmon, it had looked completely different. It had taken on this form in order for him to become the digimon emperor. During that time, he had treated his partner like trash. At the memory of how he had regarded digimon at all back then, he came to think of the boy who had run away. Their views had been pretty similar. Not looking at digimon as something living. He wondered where Dan could be now. If they ever found him again, Ken promised himself to talk him out of his ways. He wanted to prevent anyone from doing the same mistake as he had done!

"Ken?"

The soft voice made Ken snatch with surprise and look up. A pair of brown eyes looked down at him. He rolled over as Kari sat down beside him.

"Hey Kari. What's up?"

"Well, I could ask you the same question."

Ken looked out over the wasteland again and avoided to meet Kari's gaze. He didn't want to worry her.

"Well, it's just that I wonder. Do you think that boy Daniel will be ok?"

To his surprise, Kari laughed slightly at this question. He looked up at the brown-haired girl and saw that she smiled slightly at the thought of Dan, despite the situation.

"Don't worry about Dan, he will find a way to pull through. He always does."

Ken stared at Kari as she sighed and leaned back. He found this behavior unusual for someone like Kari. He had known her for four years, yet he had never noticed her being so laid back at a time like this. The Kari he knew would be worried out of her pants for someone who had wondered off on his own in the digiworld during a crisis. But then again, she had been acting kinda weird whenever Dan was around.

"I was wondering, how do you two know each other? You seem to be acquainted with each other?"

Kari move slightly and raised her head, seemingly to look at the sky but Ken noticed that she tried to hide a small blush.

"We took science class together. I know he seems to be a jerk, but at times he can be really nice and even gentle."

Kari smiled when saying the last words, still slightly blushing. Ken nodded and turned back his attention to the stronghold on the other side of the wasteland.

"Ken… you also know what this spreading darkness is, don't you?"

Kari's voice came floating over to him as if she had been talking through a cave. Her words echoed within his head and made it sound as if there was dozens of Karis speaking to him. Ken sighed. He had hoped that his suspicions weren't true, but if Kari had felt it too, then there was no mistaking it.

"The dark ocean…" he said with an empty voice. He felt a coldness rise in his chest as he said it and suddenly he was freezing.

"Do you think… if Dan comes along the dark oceans power… it will corrupt him?"

Ken snatched out of his thoughts and turned to Kari. She had switched position while he had been lost in his thoughts and was now sitting with her arms resting on her knees and staring blindly in front of her, apparently lost in thoughts.

"So you are worried after all?"

Kari snapped out of her thoughts and sighed.

"It's just… he have already been through so much pain. I just can't stand the thought of him being put through more hardships."

Ken smiled slightly. It was obvious that something was going on between Kari and their new teammate. They sat in silence for a moment before Kari broke it once again.

"I'm sorry about him speaking ill of you as the digimon emperor. I'm afraid that I'm partly responsible for him figuring it out."

Ken just nodded. He didn't blame Kari for what had happened during Dan's escape. He would have gotten to know it sooner or later. But as he was about to tell her that, a tassel was heard from behind them and both of them immediately flung to their feet.

"So that's where you are?"

Miyuki blew some leaf out of her face and emerged from behind the tree that Kari had been leaning against some time ago. She was panting and it looked like she was in a hurry.

"What's the matter Yuki? Did something happen?" Kari said while brushing some dust of her sleeve.

"You could say that. Theo hasn't come back yet and we've lost track of his digivice signal."

* * *

The heat was intense. Not even a single window was open in the conference room. Among the top merchants that were holding a company meeting was an unusually young man that seemed to be almost completely uninterested in what his companions had to say. He just sighed and looked out the window. Back when he was a child, he would have been outside, playing with his brother. He wondered how his young one was doing in Japan.

/_Flashback/_

_The older boy smiled as he looked down at his younger brother while he tried to climb up the last few branches to where his older brother was sitting in the tall tree. When he was about three branches below, he tripped and lost balance, almost falling out of the tree. He was, however, able to grab ahold of the branch and was now hanging upside down like e koala. _

"_Big brother! Help me! I'll fall of!" _

_The older boy smiled slightly and swung down to the branch where his little brother was hanging._

"_When I was your age, I could climb all the way to the top without the aid of anyone else." He said and looked down at his panicking sibling._

"_Stop it! We both know that I can never be like you!"_

"_Maybe, maybe not. But you will never know unless you try."_

_When his brother looked like he was about to cry by the stress of the situation, the older boy sighed._

"_Ok, I promise I will save you if you lose your grip. Now get going! Climb to the top!"_

_Encouraged by his brother's kind words and the promise of his own safety, Theo began to try and get up at the branch he was clinging to and eventually succeeded in doing it. Zane smiled as he saw his younger brother continue to climb without even stopping to catch his breath. _

_/End of Flashback/_

Waking up from his daydreams and finding that everyone were staring at him, Zane realized that his cellphone was ringing. Throwing a glance in the direction of the director, who just sighed and nodded, the youngest of the company bosses grabbed his phone and ran out of the room.

"Hello? Zane Newton here."

"Zane? Can you h-hear me?"

"Mother? What's wrong? I'm kind of busy right now!"

Something was wrong. He had spoken to his mother just two days ago. Why did she call him at a time like this?

"Something terrible has happened. Your brother h-have disappeared."

Zane felt like something hard had hit him in his gut. What? Theo had disappeared?

"What do you mean "he's disappeared"? How could he just disappear?"

He heard his mother take a deep breath at the other side of the line to try and calm her sobbing before answering.

"Well, he was playing at the beach with a young girl he had just met. Her name was Miyuki. They had also spoken to a teenage boy, I believe it was Miyuki's brother. They seemed to be okay as Miyuki's brother was watching them so I went to grab some ice cream for the kids, but while I was away something happened…"

Her voice died out, but Zane had heard enough.

"I'm taking the next flight to Japan. I'll call when I've arrived. See you mom!" he said and dropped his phone.

As he entered the conference room again, he immediately began to gather his stuff and pack them in his bag.

"Just where do you think you're going, ?"

Zane raised his head to see that the VD had stood up. He felt the older man's judging gaze but shrugged it off and closed his bag.

"I'm going to Japan. My brother needs me there."

"I'm sorry to say this, but as a new member of this council you can't just walk out and do whatever you want. If you leave now, you might leave for the last time."

Zane stopped at the doorstep and looked over his shoulder. All of the other members of the company were staring at either him or the VD. Their relation had been rusty ever since one of the council members had recommended Zane as a candidate to take his place as VD in the future. Probably regarding Zane as a threat to his job, the VD had since done everything to freeze out the young prospect.

"Right now, that doesn't concern me. Even if you kick me out, I can always get a new job. But if my brother dies because I wasn't there to protect him, I can never get a new brother!" he said with a cold voice that made the VD feel like he had just taken a really cold shower with extra ice. And with those words, Zane left the conference room and headed for the airport. 'Don't worry Theodore, I'm coming for you!' he thought.

* * *

"Hey Pagumon! Get your ass over here!"

Pagumon sighed as he made his way over to the open gate. Dan was standing in front of it and had a narrowed look in his eyes.

"What's up Dan?"

But Pagumon didn't need to hear the answer. The moment he reached the gate, he saw something that made his heart stop. A herd of digimon were charging at Primary village over the open wasteland. He had heard rumors about an army of dark digimon running around, conquering land and corrupting everything they touched, but he had never thought that these rumors were true.

"We got to warn the others immediately!"

But as Pagumon turned around, he found Swanmon only inches away from him.

"There's no need for that. I've already issued an evacuation order for the younger ones." Swanmon's voice was collected, but her worry could easily be seen through her face.

Dan turned around and began walking towards the gate on the opposite side of the village. Pagumon followed the human with his gaze and his eyes widened when Dan walked up to a backpack which he threw over his shoulder.

"Are you going to run away?" Pagumon felt his heart tremble. Even though he didn't want to admit it he had come to like the young human. Dan's face wasn't visible as he was already walking away from the two Digimon.

"I was just about to leave anyway, this just means I will have to exit through the other gate."

Pagumon couldn't believe his ears. He bit his lip and turned around to face the approaching threat. Since Dan had come along, he had been able to see why he had been reborn. He was meant to protect others. That's what Agumon had meant all those years ago. Dan had opened his eyes to that, but now it seemed like the boy still had his own eyes closed.

"Fine then. Then I'll just have to protect the younglings alone." Pagumon said as he felt an enormous energy surge coming from somewhere inside his heart.

**Pagumon digivolve tooooo…. BlackAgumon!**

As the datastream that had covered his body during the digivolution left, BlackAgumon looked down at his new body. He had grown legs and feet again and his arms ended two three-fingered claws. He recognized the body shape of Agumon, with the difference that he was black he looked just like his old friend. But then, he noticed that he had a pair of dark-blue armbands strapped around his claws. They reminded him of Dan for some reason, possibly just because they had the same color as the boys dark-blue jacket.

"If you're done staring at your claws Agumon, we got work to do!" Swanmon said as she flew over the wall and charged at the approaching corrupt digimon.

"Right!" BlackAgumon exclaimed and followed suit.

* * *

By the time Dan reached the top of the hill, the dark digimon had already entered the village. He could hear the babies cry somewhere among the many screams he could hear Swanmon shouting at the corrupt ones to leave her babies alone. Dan felt his heart tremble as he looked back at the place that had been his home for several days. He clenched his fist in frustration. Why did he feel so at unease? If he really wanted to erase all digimon, it would be crucial to destroy the place where they all were usually reborn. This just spared him the effort. If he just walked away now, Primary Village would disappear. Because digivolved or not, BlackAgumon couldn't protect it on his own.  
'_Fine then. Then I'll just have to protect the younglings alone!'_ Dan heard his friends words as if they had been spoken to him just now. The voice was loaded with determination. Just a few days ago, that creature would have ran away from the fighting like any baby-digimon else.  
'_Quit being such a jerk bro!' _As he tried to take a step away from the village, Miyuki's voice reached him once again in his memories. The look on her face when she said those words was still etched onto the inside of his mind. He could see her in front of him even now… no. He could see all of them in front of him now! All five of them: Yuki, Theo, Davis, Ken, T.K… and Kari. He remembered the look on Kari's face when he had thrown away his digivice. Damn it! He couldn't just leave them! Those babies, those puny little babies had saved his life! He wasn't meant to kill them, he was meant to protect them! He was a digidestined!

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a harmonious, blue light appeared in front of him. At first it blinded his field of vision, but as his eyes accustomed to the light he could see something in its center. He held out his hand to catch it and the light faded, leaving the object to fall into his open palm. When he had caught it he recognized it: it was his digivice! How did it get here? Then, he heard an explosion from behind him and a scream from one of the babies. He clenched his fist around the digivice and turned to face the burning huts. '_Well, it doesn't matter how it got here. But now I'm going to put it to good use!'_

* * *

_Finally, Dan is starting to show his true colors! Now what will happen? Review and wait to find out!  
_


	11. Gathering of Past Heroes

**A/N: **_Hello guys! It's been a long time! I think about half a year. Well for you new readers I wanna say: Welcome to the story and for you old I wanna say sorry. I had a lot on my mind back then and when I got back I felt like trying something new. It wasn't your fault, though I could have used a few more reviews… anyway! Here comes a chapter that has been half-finished for half a year! Hope you like it!_

**Disclaimer:** I do not own this stuff except Dan, Yuki and Theo.

* * *

_Chapter 11: Gathering of past heroes_

As the train stopped on the final platform, the young nurse was already standing in by the doors. When the doors opened, he was first man to step of and left the other passengers in the dust as he ran up to the stairs. When he reached ground level, he slowed down and felt relieved that he could recognize the train station. It looked just as it had when he had left to work in the capital. Though the crowd made it hard to see, he knew exactly how he was supposed to go in order to reach the exit. When he finally had made it out to the street and stopped to feel the welcome cold breeze, the younger boy he had been travelling with caught up.

"Joe… huh huh, since when are you the one to run willingly?" the short boy asked while trying to catch his breath.

"I work out three days a week after work." Joe answered Cody, as if that explained everything.

When Cody had caught his breath, the two digidestined began walking down the street. They had been told to go meet Tai at the park. They hadn't been told the whole situation yet, but from the sound of their friend's voice when he had called them, they both knew something big was going on.

* * *

"What do you mean you can't come back, Matt?"

Tai trembled with frustration and almost lost grip of his cellphone while he paced back and forth in front of the bench he was supposed to meet Cody and Joe by. He had called his best friend once an hour the last 2 days and when he finally got ahold of him, he had told him that he couldn't come back?!

"I told you I'm busy. I got my career to think of."

They had been going in circle around the subject for ten minutes now and Tai was starting to get pissed.

"Too busy to save the world?" he asked sarcastically. He knew by experience that being sarcastic when talking about serious subjects wasn't very appreciated by his best friend, but maybe that's what triggered it from him now.

"You know I would never back down from that." Matt said sharply.

For a moment there was complete silence between them. Then, Tai decided to bring up his second subject.

"Does this have to do with Sora?"

Though he couldn't see it, Tai could almost feel that Matt had stiffened at the mention of his girlfriend. He knew that Matt knew that Sora was a touchy subject for Tai. For him to bring it up between them meant something had happened.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Something is not right between the two of you. Is that the reason you don't want to come back?" Tai felt his heart tremble almost as much as his fist had trembled a few moments ago. Depending on Matt's answer, Tai may not be very happy once this was over.

"Why do you think something's wrong?" Matt's attempt to sound sure about his thing was a complete failure.

"C'mon man, she leaned on my shoulder for three hours straight and **cried!** It's obvious something is not right!"

It was slight, but Tai could hear Matt take a deep breath to calm his voice. He waited for him to answer, but it seemed Matt had lost his words. Finally, his friend spoke up.

"What has she told you?"

Though it was hard to tell through the phone, Tai could hear a slight sting of guilt in Matt's voice.

"She said that you haven't answered her calls for I don't know how long, seemingly without a reason. But I know you're not the kind of person who would do something like that without a reason. Something's wrong and you better tell me what it is."

After finishing his little speech, Tai noticed that a sting of his frustration had found its way into his voice. He was about to apologize for sounding rude, but Matt beat him to it.

"I'm sorry I haven't told you Tai. I should have said something. Just promise me you won't tell Sora before I can talk to her about it."

This did not sound very promising. However, Tai's curiosity got the advantage of his moral side.

"I won't. Now tell me."

"When I was hanging out with my friends after a concert some time ago, I met another girl. It wasn't my intention but one thing led to another and…"

Matt's voice died out. It took Tai some time to finally get through his head what Matt had just told him. It couldn't be, could it?

"You don't mean… You?"

"Yes, I do. And the worst part is that I don't feel ashamed of it either."

Tai didn't just hear that last thing.

"You don't feel ashamed for cheating on your girlfriend?" Tai's voice could no longer hide the disgust he felt for what he had just heard.

"No not that. That's feels terrible. I mean about Clara. She's a really nice girl and I really like her. How much I try to not think of it that way, being with her feels so right and I can't help but like her."

Tai tried to calm himself as an old pair passed by and stared at the boy that looked like he was about to rip something to shreds.

"So you mean that you no longer have any feelings for Sora? That you like this Clara more?"

"That's exactly it. But I don't know how to tell Sora. I don't want her to become crushed or depressed. I have to find a way to tell her so that she won't be sad about it."

Not wanting to know why, Tai suddenly felt much happier than he had felt in a long time. He did his best to not let it sipper into his voice when he answered Matt.

"I don't think that will be possible. No matter how nice you try to say it, she will feel hurt because of the reason you dump her."

"Then, what should I do?"

In Tai's ears, Matt began to sound like a child who wanted help with his homework. The always grown-up and mature Matt was actually asking for help.

"That is something you will have to decide yourself, but I suggest that you just tell her face-to-face."

For a minute, none of them uttered a sound. Tai patiently waited for his friend's reaction. However, it didn't come as he had expected.

"I'm not getting away, am I?"

"Nope, you will have to tell her sooner or later."

"Then I guess nothing's keeping me away from the assembly?"

"No."

Tai knew he had won. He still couldn't comprehend that Matt had cheated on Sora, but for some reason he didn't hold it against him.

"Then I guess I'll see you in a few days?"

As he said it, two young men walked up the graveled path that led to the bench that Tai was leaning against. The digidestined leader recognized his friends, and waved to them.

"Yeah, see you then."

"Bye Tai."

* * *

Izzy was nervously trying to fix hi hair on the lavatory on the airport. No matter how hard he tried, it just wouldn't lay down. Not even with the hardest gel in town it would do as he wanted it to. It was at times like this Tentomon used to say how good it felt that he didn't have any hair, earning himself a poke in the forehead from his partner. Checking his watch, the computer genius realized that the flight he waited for had already arrived. He grabbed his bag and ran out of the lavatory, almost falling when he avoided colliding with an old man who was passing by outside the door. Making his way through the crowd, Izzy spotted a pair of familiar looking girls, one of which was waving her hand at him enthusiastically.

"Izzy! We're over here sweetheart!"

The computer genius felt his cheeks heat up as a reaction to being called sweetheart. Embarrassed he made his way over to the holders of the crest and digi-egg of sincerity. Half-way, he was engulfed in a big hug. Apparently Mimi couldn't wait for him to get over to her himself.

"I've missed you "Swizzy"."

If he hadn't already been as red as one could possibly be, he would have gotten even redder. Not only had she used his very private nickname, but in front of other people.

"Mimi, not in front of Yolei." He whispered in her ear while trying to hide his blush in her long mane of red-brownish hair.

"Oh, don't mind her. She already knows." Mimi said with a cheerful smile on her face.

That didn't help Izzy look any less like a tomato with hair, but he let go of his not-so-secret-anymore girlfriend and turned to greet Yolei. His former protégé in the computer club greeted him with a light hug and a huge smile. Izzy was happy that both of them were alright, but right now there was more serious things in the doing.

"We're gonna meet at the beach in two hours. You should head home and greet your parents before that Yolei. And Mimi…" his face, that had just began to return to its usual color, reddened slightly again. Mimi just nodded. It was made up that Mimi was going to stay at Izzy's apartment during her stay in Japan. However, the particular detail that Izzy had moved out and was currently renting his own apartment was something that should be kept secret from specific ears. It was bad enough Tai knew.

"So what's the deal Izzy? Why are we going to the beach and why did you call us here?" Yolei proved that she was a true member of the computer club by displaying her thirst for information when they began moving towards the exit. Izzy waited until they had gotten outside, out of reach for curious ears, before answering.

"A Digi-portal opened down at the beach and presumably swallowed Kari, T.K, Davis and Ken. We don't know why but we think something is wrong in the digital world."

Yolei stopped dead in her tracks. Izzy, who had been focused on finding his car, did not notice until Mimi grabbed his arm to keep him from walking further away from their friend.

"Hm? Yolei, is something the matter?" Izzy had a vague idea of what was wrong, but didn't say anything. He was worried about the exact same thing and through her grip at his arm, he could feel that Mimi worried about the same thing.

"Then… is Hawkmon and the others ok? Have you heard from them?"

Izzy bit his lip. He felt Mimi's grip around his arm tighten and understood that Palmon was on her mind. They had left their partners in the digiworld in order to have some alone time and he knew Ken, Cody and Joe had done the same. So technically, should something happen in the real world, only he, Sora and Tai would be able to fight. He was not sure if Matt had Gabumon with him or not but at the moment it didn't matter since Matt would not show up during their first meeting, according to what Tai said over the phone.

"I'm sure that they are okay. They can take care of themselves. Until we get word from them, all we can do is have faith that they are doing fine against whatever is threatening the digiworld."

Yolei clenched her fist in frustration but understood that what Izzy said was true. She looked at Mimi, who had a worried but determined look in her face. She had been through this before, during the digimon emperors reign in the digital world. Finally, Yolei understood how frustrating it must have felt back then to know Palmon might be in danger but not being able to do something.

"Then, why are we standing around here?" she asked and walked up to them.

* * *

It hurt. Theo tried to open his eyes but the small glimpse of light made him close them again. The pain in his head was too intense. He felt his hands being tied behind his back and the cold floor made of hard sand. He began sobbing. Why had he been drawn into this mess? He was useless at everything, why hadn't whoever picked him for this picked Zane instead? Zane could do everything. He was a damn genius who had recently gained a seat in the management of one of America's biggest companies, only 19 years old! Why would someone pick the geniuses stupid little brother over the genius himself?

"Why are you crying?"

The deep voice made Theo look up and slightly open his eyes. He could see the silhouette of a digimon in the same cell he had been thrown in. In the dim light from the torch he would guess that it was green in color and looked like a giant larva. The creature's big eyes looked into Theo's and suddenly the pain in his head began to subside. Its eyes looked nothing like the eyes of the creature that had taken Theo captive. It held nothing of that fierce look full of hatred. This larva's eyes were deep and carrying, it was almost like staring down into a bottomless ocean. And when it spoke up again, its voice somehow filled Theo with belief that what it said was true.

"Don't worry, we will be freed from this prison. The Digi-destined will come for us. I should know because I am a Digi-destined partner myself."

As Theo felt the tears on his cheeks finally dry out and his thoughts clear out the panic it had been clouded with the last hour, he began to put things together.

"You're Wormmon, Ken's partner!" he said with after a deep breath.

The digimon nodded.

"At your service. Does that mean that you have met Ken recently?" Wormmon knew that Ken was more than capable of looking after himself and had complete faith that his friend would be okay as long as he had his friends, but he was still curious to how he was doing.

"I was brought here along with him and 6 others." Theo told Wormmon. He didn't know why, but talking made his fear go away. It felt reassuring that he wasn't alone. Despite the coldness of the cell they were in, talking to Wormmon made a warm feeling spread from his heart.

"Then I'm sure that they will come for us both. Ken won't give up before I'm safe back at his side. And since you're here I guess you too have a partner that will come for you?"

At the mention of Theo's "partner", the boy felt a cold hand grip around his heart. The warmth he had felt a few moments ago was gone and had been replaced by a feeling of loneliness, despite Wormmons presence.

"No, my partner picked the wrong person." He said with an empty voice and looked away from the larva digimon.

Wormmon moved up to the boy and began to chew of the ropes that kept the boy immobile. Theo kept his gaze on the wall. When the ropes finally were off, he tried to move his hurt ankles to try and ease the pain.

"You know. Things aren't always like they seem. For a time, Ken wasn't really himself and he didn't want me as his partner, but I never doubted that one day he would come around. If you were partnered with a specific Digimon, then you are meant to be partners no matter what happens."

His last words made something awaken in Theo's memory. A distant memory from a time he had been trying to forget.

_/Flashback/_

"_Zane?"_

"_Yeah? What is it?"_

"_Why does father only care about you?"_

_The two brothers had gone out for an evening walk during a soft summer night. Or rather, Theo had wanted to go out and Zane had volunteered to be his guardian so he wouldn't have to deal with their mother's overprotective persona. After a short walk in the park, they had stopped to take a break and taken a seat in the grass watching the sunset. The older brother looked down at his little brother and smiled._

"_He does care about you. He just have a funny way of showing it."_

_Theo however, was not very happy about the explanation._

"_What do you mean? He never pays any attention to what I do and whenever I do something good, he just turns to you and starts talking about how much better you are at everything."_

_The younger boy sulked and looked up at the orange evening sky. His older brother sighed._

"_Well, it's complicated. But you know our uncle right?"_

_Theo nodded. Their uncle Ben was a professional Ice Hockey player and was currently gaining millions for only gliding around on ice and push people here and there. _

"_Back when they were kids, both our dad and our uncle used to play hockey together. However, our uncle who was 3 years older was always the best on the ice and he completely outplayed his friends. When our dad began playing hockey everyone expected him to be just as good as his brother but he wasn't. He was the complete opposite and got yelled at every time he failed. Therefore, he knows how it is like to live under pressure. By giving me the credit for everything and always talking about me, he hopes that nobody would put my shadow on you and thus protect you from that pressure."_

_Zane smiled when Theo pouted his lips and turned away. His brother was still too young to understand their father's reasoning. _

"_Well, I think he is just stupid!" the younger boy said._

"_Well, you got that right." His brother answered. _

_A silence fell between the two brothers. Theo hadn't been cheered up the littlest by his brother's explanation of why their dad did not seem to care for his youngest son. Zane sighed and put an arm around Theo's shoulder. The younger boy pouted and said:_

"_Sometimes I wish I had been born with another father."_

_There was a moment of silence. Then, to Theo's shock, Zane laughed. The younger boy looked up at his brother as if he had become crazy._

"_You see, it's not that simple. In some cases, you can't change the way things are. Some things are simply meant to be. You and dad are meant to be father and son, no matter what happens."_

_Zane smiled at his brother as Theo tried to take in what the older boy had told him._

As Theo snapped out of his flashback, he found himself clutching his digivice. He didn't know how it had got there, but somehow it felt different from how it used to feel. It made him want to keep a high spirit. If he just believed in it, Leomon would come and get him. Maybe it was the same for partners as it were with parents. No matter what, you were destined for each other. He looked to the side to meet Wormmon's gaze to find that the insect digimon had never taken his gaze of him.

"Thank you Wormmon, I think I feel a little better now."

The larva simply smiled at him.

"You welcome."

* * *

BlackAgumon cried out in pain as he was thrown back into a hut by an Ogremon. The green creature roared as it ran after its prey. The lack dinosaur stood back up and charged at his enemy.

"Pepperbreath!" he cried as he fired a green flamed fireball.

Ogremon simply met the attack with a swing from its club. The fire was put out easily and the club went on to hit a Botamon that happened to be in its way. The sparkling of the burning village was only interrupted by the occasional screams from the baby digimon and the shouts from their attempted protectors. BlackAgumon and Swanmon were doing there best to get as many of the babies out of the village but a lot of them were still inside. Swanmon, despite being stronger than the general of the attacking digimon, had no chance to measure against their overwhelming numbers so they had resolved to try and just get the babies to safety.

"BlackAgumon!"

A shout echoed through the village and caught the dinosaur digimon's attention. From the south entrance, he could see a lone figure running towards him. It was a boy, dressed in a tattered dark-blue jacket and black shorts.

"Daniel!"

Agumon started running towards his assigned partner and the two met half way. For a moment, the chaos spreading through the village didn't seem to disturb them. They just looked at each other. And then, Dan held out his hand.

"I'm sorry, I should never have left in the first place."

He was about to go on but his partner help up his hand to silence him.

"Just be sure to make it up to us."

As he said it, he took the boy's hand and shook it, to show that he accepted his apology. However, an explosion and a terrified Swanmon running by shouting:

"If you boys are done with your happy moment, now would be a good time to help!"

BlackAgumon nodded towards the bird digimon and turned back towards Dan in time to see the boy pull out his digivice. Feeling a sting of hope, BlackAgumon met Dan's gaze as he asked:

"Do you know how to use that thing?"

The boy was about to answer when a fireball came flying towards the two. BlackAgumon dove out of the way while Dan simply took a step to the side and let the fireball pass. Though he would never admit it, Agumon was impressed by the show of emotional control Dan displayed. However, there was no time to space out. From the same direction as the fireball had come, a corrupt Gazimon came flying towards Dan. The boy took a step back and then charged to meet the digimon. Throwing a punch towards the digimon's torso, the attacker lost its breath at the point of impact. Quickly regaining its composure, the Gazimon aimed to scratch Dan across the face. Dan lifted his left arm to block the strike and managed to steer it to the side. Now wide open, the Gazimon got thrown backwards as its face connected with Dan's knee. BlackAgumon whistled, secretly vowing that for his own good, he would never start arguing with his partner as long as he was still in his rookie form.

"Hey Black, watch out!"

Dan had turned towards his digimon friend in time to spot an approaching Elecmon. Seeing as his partner was already running towards him, BlackAgumon threw himself to the ground, causing the attacking digimon to pass over him, timed perfectly to get punched in the face by Dan. As the boys fist connected to Elecmon, it was engulfed in a bright light and a ring of light began circling around it. Shocked at this, Agumon was quickly on his feet and by his friend's side. The circle was covered by a digicode. Dan looked down at his fist, as if reading the code, then smirked.

"I see, so that's how it is."

BlackAgumon's eyes widened. The ability to read digicodes had been lost for ages. Not even Azulongmon the sovereign was completely able to decipher all of the codes around the digiworld. Could it really be that this human had the ability to read the digicodes? He was about to ask when Dan pulled out his digivice again.

"We take the questions later. Now let's finish this!" Dan exclaimed as he pushed a button in the upper corner of the digivice and a ring similar to the one around his hand appeared, though with different symbols on it. He spared a quick glance at it but then turned to BlackAgumon who eyed him with eyes big as soccerballs.

"I'm not sure this will work, but let's give it a try."

Agumon snapped out of his trance and nodded, not really sure what it was he agreed to. Smirking, Dan turned towards the burning village. He waved his arms in a flashy fashion and then threw the circles together, making them cross each other similar to two gears.

"**DNA charge! Digi Matrix activate!"**

Agumon felt a tickling sensation in his belly and then an enormous surge of power as the digivice gave of the sound of an overloaded computer or generator and a soft voice said: "**Digivolution."**

"**BlackAgumon digivolve toooo…"**

_BlackAgumon was engulfed in a pillar of light. His arms got longer and his tail grew to full size. A data stream travelled over his body, causing it to enlarging to a full sized dinosaur. He got green and dark-red stripes on his legs and back. The datastream then travelled all the way out to his tails end. Once it reach the tip, it began running over his back towards his head, causing small spikes to spout along his spine. With a roar, the remaining DataStream formed into a horned helmet once it reaching his head. The transformation ended with his eyes bursting with flames, now showing a more aggressive look than they did in his rookie form._

"**RyuGreymon!"**

**A/N:**_ Ok! So I am back in business! __ It's been a good few months since I updated and I bet most who used to follow have forgotten about me… anyway, I hope some of you like this, new or old reader! And for you who are curious about BlackAgumon's new form, no it is not a canon digimon._

**Digimon Analyzer: **RyuGreymon is slightly larger than a regular Greymon. It has a more muscular build, similar to GeoGreymon and a more dragon-like appearance than other Greymon species digimon. Unlike the original BlackGreymon that is more blue than black, this variation have the color scheme of DarkTyrannomon, with green spikes on his back and dark red strips instead of the black ones that cover BlackGreymon. It also have the dark blue armbands from its rookie form strapped around its claws. Behind its shoulders, he is showing off three spike-like things, hinting that he has begun growing what could turn into dragon wings. To top off its appearance, its front horn is larger than the original Greymon's, equaling Kabuterimon's horn in size and thickness.

**Cont. A/N: **Now that we got that out of the way, what do you think of the chapter? I would be pleased if you would like to leave a review, regardless of what you think. I will be trying to get this story back on track so I would appreciate help.

P.S: I will try and fix some issues with the first chapters. Since this was one of my first stories, I hadn't learned to make line breakers (the humiliation…) so I will try and set things right with that.


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